JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE 
SOCIAL   QUESTION 


^!^2^ 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE 
SOCIAL  QUESTION 


AN  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  IN 

rrS  RELATION  TO  SOME  OF  THE  PROBLEMS 

OF  MODERN  SOCLA.L  LIFE 


BY 


FRANCIS    GREENWOOD    fEABODY 

PLUMMER  PROFESSOR  OF  CHRISTIAN  MORALS 
IN   HARVARD   UNIVERSITY 


Wftn  gork 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1903 

All  rights  reserved 


^3 


SPRECKELS 


CORYRIGHT,    1900, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


S«t  up  and  electrotyped  November,  1900.      Reprinted  Marcl^ 
X901;  April,  1901  ;  August,  October,  1901;  August,  1902;  February, 
1903. 


Nartnaob  i^rtsfl 

J.  B.  Cuihing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 

Norwood  Mua.  U.S.A. 


THROUGH  SUNNY  DAYS  AND  ON  THROUGH  STORMY  WEATHER, 

YET  EVER   HAND   IN   HAND,   BELOVED  WIFE, 
WE  TWO   HAVE  WALKED   OUR   QUIET  WAY  TOGETHER 

ALONG  THE  DUSTY  ROAD   OF  COMMON  LIFE. 

BRIGHT  WERE  THE  VISTAS  ON  OUR  JOURNEY  SEEN, 
AND   DARK  THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  SHADOW  LAY, 

BUT  YOUR   DEAR   LOVE,   LIKE   ISRAEL'S  GOD,    HAS   BEEN 
MY  LIGHT  IN   DARKNESS  AND  MY  SHADE  BY  DAY. 

I  CANNOT  GIVE  YOU  WHAT  A  SCHOLAR  OUGHT, 
LEARNING  OR  WIT  OR   INSIGHT   FOR  THE  TRUE; 

I   BUT  TRANSCRIBE  WHAT  YOU   HAVE  DAILY  TAUGHT,— 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  MASTER  SEEN  IN  YOU. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/christquestionOOpeabrich 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

VAGB 

The  Comprehensiveness  of  the  Teaching  of  Jesus       .       i 

CHAPTER  II 
The  Social  Principles  of  the  Teaching  of  Jesus         .      76 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  Family    .       .129 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  Rich       .       .    183 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  Care  of  the 

Poor 226 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus  concerning   the   Industrial 

Order 267 

CHAPTER  Vn 

The  Correlation  of  the  Social  Questions    ,       .       .327 

vii 


of 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  SOCIAL 
QUESTION 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING   OF 

JESUS 

Wcit  life  bja«  tfje  Itflfjt  of  xmii. 

There  are  many  periods  in  history  which,  as 
one  looks  back  on  them,  seem  marked  by  distinct 
and  central  problems  or  achievements,  as  if  to 
each  such  time  there  had  been  committed  a 
special  work  to  do.  Their  characteristics  stand 
out  clearly  against  the  past,  as  a  distant  range 
of  mountains  stands  out  against  an  evening  sky. 
We  speak  with  confidence  of  the  mission  of 
Greece  to  civilization,  of  the  place  of  Rome  in 
history,  of  the  vocation  of  the  Hebrews,  of  the 
period  of  the  Reformation,  of  the  epoch  of 
Napoleon.  By  one  lesson  at  a  time,  —  through 
types  of  beauty  or  strength  or  righteousness, 
through  instructions  in  intellectual  liberty,  or 
warnings  of  the  lust  for  power,  —  the  Master  of 
the  ages  seems  to  have  directed  the  education 
of  the  human  race.  Sometimes  this  mission  of 
an  age  or  race  is  recognized  by  those  who  are 

B  I 


2        JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

fulfilling  it;  sometimes  it  is  discerned  when  one 
stands  at  a  distance,  where  the  crowded  details 
of  life  melt  into  a  general  view.  The  Hebrews, 
on  the  one  hand,  were  sustained  throughout 
their  history  by  the  conviction  of  their  sacred 
and  special  calling,  and  that  conviction  gave 
to  their  career  its  sombre,  strenuous,  self-examin- 
ing character;  in  Greek  life,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  was  the  very  unconsciousness  of  a  didactic 
mission  which  made  possible  the  prevailing 
serenity  and  charm.  If  Greek  art  had  stood 
consciously  before  the  glass  of  the  future,  it 
might  have  been  the  teacher,  but  could  not  have 
been  the  joy,  of  the  world. 

The  present  age  belongs,  without  question,  to 
the  former  class.  There  is  not  only  given  to  it 
a  mission,  but  there  is  added  a  distinct  conscious- 
ness of  that  mission.  We  do  not  have  to  wait 
for  the  philosophical  historian  of  some  remote 
future  to  discern  the  characteristic  problem  of 
the  present  time.  Behind  all  the  extraordinary 
achievements  of  modern  civilization,  its  transfor- 
mations of  business  methods,  its  miracles  of  scien- 
tific discovery,  its  mighty  combinations  of  political 
forces,  there  lies  at  the  heart  of  the  present 
time  a  burdening  sense  of  social  mal-adjustment 
which  creates  what  we  call  the  social  ques- 
tion. "The  social  question,"  remarks  Professor 
Wagner,  "  comes  of  the  consciousness  of  a  con- 
tradiction between  economic  development  and 
the  social  ideal  of  liberty  and  equality  which  is 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING     3 

being  realized  in  political  life."^  This  is  what 
gives  its  fundamental  character  to  the  present  age. 
The  consciousness  of  contradiction  between  eco- 
nomic progress  and  spiritual  ideals  may  use  the 
language  of  social  philosophy,  or  may  take  the 
form  of  social  service,  or  may  be  organized  in 
social  legislation,  or  may  simply  utter  itself  in  the 
passionate  cry  of  indignation  or  hate  which  comes 
from  the  hungry  or  despairing,  or  from  those  who 
sympathize  with  them.  In  all  these  varied,  and 
often  unreasonable  or  extravagant,  ways  the  char- 
acteristic emotion  of  the  time  expresses  itself.  It 
is  the  age  of  the  social  question.  Never  were  so 
many  people,  learned  and  ignorant,  rich  and  poor, 
philosophers  and  agitators,  men  and  women,  so 
stirred  by  this  recognition  of  inequality  in  social 
opportunity,  by  the  call  to  social  service,  by  dreams 
of  a  better  social  world. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  huge,  inert  mass  of  unob- 
servant humanity,  with  no  perception  of  this  new 
region  of  hope  and  faith  into  which  the  present 
generation  is  entering.  These  persons  live  their 
lives  of  business  or  of  pleasure,  as  Jesus,  with 
splendid  satire,  said  of  such  persons  in  his  own 
age,  with  just  enough  power  of  observation  to  tell 
the  signs  of  to-morrow's  weather,  but  without  the 

1  A.  Wagner,  "  Lehrbuch  der  poHtischen  Oekonomie,"  2.  Aufl., 
1876,  s.  36.  So  also  Bebel,  "Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialismus,"  10. 
Aufl.,  1891,  s.  240:  "Society,  in  its  form  of  wealth,  has  grown  far 
more  aristocratic  than  in  any  earlier  age,  ...  in  its  ideals  and  its 
legislation  it  has  grown  far  more  democratic." 


4        JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

capacity  to  discern  the  signs  of  their  own  timcs.^ 
No  one,  however,  who  lifts  his  eyes  from  his  own 
private  life  can  mistake  these  signs  of  the  times. 
[Thf>  literature  of  the  present  age  is  satujated.  with. 


the  desire  for  spQJgil  amelioratinn  or  social  revo- 
lution;  workmen  with  grimy  hands  and  women 
with  eager  eyes  are  turning  the  pages  of  the 
economists  in  search  of  practical  guidance ;  social 
panaceas  are  confidently  offered  on  every  hand ; 
organization  on  an  unprecedented  scale  is  con- 
solidating the  fighting  force  of  the  hand-working 
class;  legislation  is  freely  advocated  which  prac- 
tically revolutionizes  the  earlier  conception  of  the 
function  of  government ;  and,  finally,  the  party  of 
revolution,  with  its  milUons  of  voters  in  European 
countries,  officially  announces  that  all  other  issues 
are  to  be  subordinated  to  the  social  question,  and 
that  all  other  parties  are  to  be  regarded  as  "a 
mere  reactionary  mass."^  It  is  the  age  of  the 
social  question;  and  to  pretend  that  social  life  is 
undisturbed,  or  is  but  superficially  agitated,  is  sim- 
ply to  confess  that  one  has  been  caught  in  an 
eddy  of  the  age  and  does  not  feel  the  sweep  of  its 
main  current. 

It  is,  however,  not  enough  to  say  that  among 
human  interests  the  social  question  is  just  now 

1  Matt.  xvi.  2,  3;  Luke  xii.  54-56. 

2  «  Die  Befreiung  der  Arbeit  muss  das  Werk  der  Arbeiterklasse 
sein,  der  gegenuber  alle  anderen  Klassen  nur  eine  reaktionare  Masse 
sind,"  Programm  der  sozialdemokratischen  Partei  Deutschlands, 
Gotha,  1878. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING     5 

central  and  commanding.  There  are,  it  must  be 
added,  two  characteristics  of  the  modern  temper 
which  make  of  the  social  question  of  the  present 
time  something  quite  different  from  the  economic 
and  social  agitations  of  the  past.  In  the  first 
place,  we  are  now  confronted  by  a  degree  of 
radicalism  and  a  scope  of  reconstructive  purpose 
which  practically  create  a  new  situation.  Social 
and  industrial  reforms  in  the  past  have  been  for 
the  most  part  ameliorative  or  philanthropic  meas- 
ures, accepting  the  existing  order  of  things,  and 
mitigating  its  harsher  effects.  Now  and  then  a 
sudden  wave  of  indignation  has  risen  out  of  the 
depths  of  human  nature  and  has  swept  away  some 
special  abuse  like  American  slavery,  or  some  spe- 
cial form  of  social  relationship  like  the  ancien 
regime  of  France;  but  for  the  most  part  the 
desire  to  relieve  the  unfortunate  and  improve 
the  condition  of  the  hand-worker  has  satisfied 
itself  with  deeds  of  charity  and  with  industrial 
expedients  which  calm  the  surface  of  social  life. 
A  wholly  different  state  of  mind  prevails  to-day. 
Beneath  all  the  tranquillizing  arrangements  of 
philanthropy  or  industry  which  are  being  applied 
to  social  disorder,  there  is  a  vast  and  rising 
tide  of  discontent,  stirring  to  its  very  bottom 
the  stream  of  social  life.  The  social  question 
of  the  present  age  is  not  a  question  of  mitigating 
the  evils  of  the  existing  order,  but  a  question 
whether  the  existing  order  itself  shall  last.  It  is 
not  so  much  a  problem  of   social  amelioration 


6         JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

which  occupies  the  modern  mind,  as  a  problem 
of  social  transformation  and  reconstruction.  The 
new  social  interest  is  concerned  not  so  much  with 
effects  as  causes ;  not  with  social  therapeutics,  but 
with  social  bacteriology  and  social  hygiene.  In- 
deed, in  this  frame  of  mind  there  is  often  to  be 
discerned  a  violent  reaction  from  traditional  ways 
of  charity  and  from  moderate  measures  of  re- 
form. The  time  is  wasted,  it  is  urged,  which  is 
given  to  lopping  off  occasional  branches  of  social 
wrong,  when  the  real  social  question  cuts  at  the 
root  from  which  these  branches  grow.  Instead  of 
inquiring  what  ways  of  charity  are  wise,  let  us 
rather,  it  is  urged,  inquire  why  charity  is  neces- 
sary and  why  poverty  exists.  Instead  of  reform- 
ing the  adjustments  of  industry,  let  us  rather  ask 
why  the  effects  of  industry  are  so  cruel,  debasing, 
and  unjust.  Not  a  merciful  use  of  things  as  they 
are,  but  a  state  of  things  where  mercy  will  not  be 
necessary;  not  patronage,  but  justice;  not  the  gen- 
erous distribution  of  superfluous  wealth,  but  the 
righteous  restitution  of  wealth  to  those  who  have 
created  it,  —  such  are  the  demands  to  which  our 
ears  have  of  late  become  accustomed,  and  which 
indicate  the  character  of  the  modern  social  ques- 
^  tion.    "  The  number  of  relief-  and  charity-panaceas 

for  poverty,"  said  an  English  agitator,  "  are  of  no 
more  value  than  a  poultice  to  a  wooden  leg.  What 
we  want  is  economic  revolution,  and  not  pious  and 
heroic  resolutions."  ^ 

*  Ben  TiUett,  in  London  Times ^  January  i,  1895. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING     7 

This  unflinching  radicalism  proceeds  to  examine 
the  very  pillars  of  social  life,  and  to  consider 
whether  they  are  worth  what  it  costs  to  buttress 
and  maintain  them.  Three  such  social  institutions 
appear  to  support  the  fabric  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion —  the  family,  private  property,  and  the  State ; 
and  there  is  not  one  of  these  institutions  whose 
continued  existence  in  its  present  form  is  not  now 
a  matter  of  active  discussion,  or  whose  abolition  is 
not  confidently  prophesied.  Is  not  the  institution 
of  the  family  to  be  regarded  as  a  passing  incident 
in  the  course  of  social  evolution,  the  end  of  whose 
social  service  has  nearly  arrived  ?  Is  not  the  insti- 
tution of  private  property  a  mere  symbol  of  social 
oppression,  so  that,  as  the  earlier  revolutionists 
cried,  "Property  is  robbery,"  their  modern  fol- 
lowers may  now  add,  "  It  is  right  to  rob  the  rob- 
bers "  ?  Is  not  the  institution  of  the  State,  in  its 
present  form,  a  mere  instrument  of  the  privileged 
class,  and  must  it  not  be  supplanted  by  a  coopera- 
tive commonwealth  of  collective  ownership  .'*  Ques- 
tions like  these,  freely  agitated  in  our  day  by  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  people,  indicate  how  funda- 
mental and  thoroughgoing  the  social  problem  of 
which  they  are  a  part  must  be.  They  propose  a 
revolution,  not  only  in  the  outward  conditions  of 
social  life,  but  in  the  very  instincts  and  habits  of 
mind  which  adjust  themselves  to  the  present  social 
order. 

Such  possibilities  of  social  change  are  viewed  by 
many  persons  with  grave  apprehension,  and  by 


8         JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

many  with  jubilant  hope.  To  one  class  of  observ- 
ers, we  appear  to  be  threatened  by  social  disaster, 
industrial  chaos,  a  new  slavery;  to  the  opposite 
class,  we  appear  to  be  at  the  dawn  of  a  happy 
era  of  brotherhood  and  justice,  and  Mr.  WiUiam 
Morris  sings:  — 

"  Come  hither,  lads,  and  hearken,  for  there  is  a  tale  to  tell, 
Of  the  wonderful  days  a-coming  when  all  shall  be  better 
than  well."  1 

From  either  point  of  view,  however,  the  social 
question  is  seen  to  have  a  quality  of  comprehen- 
siveness and  radicalism  which  makes  it  practically 
a  new  issue,  and  it  is  important  at  the  outset  of 
the  present  inquiry  to  recognize  how  large  a  ques- 
tion it  is  with  which  we  have  to  do.  A  generation 
ago  Mr.  Lowell  touched  the  note  of  the  social 
question  of  his  time  in  his  "  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal." 
Social  duty  seemed  then  fulfilled  in  deeds  of  benev- 
olence and  self-sacrificing  love;  and  a  whole  gen- 
eration learned  to  repeat  his  lines  as  the  summary 
of  social  service :  — 

"  Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare. 
Who  giveth  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three,  — 
Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  Me." 

The  temper  of  the  present  age  is  no  longer  com- 
prehended by  such  a  statement  of  the  social  ques- 
tion. Instead  of  generosity,  men  ask  for  justice ; 
instead  of  alms,  they  demand  work.     Thus  the  le- 

1 "  Chants  for  Socialists,"  London,  1885. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF  THE   TEACHING  9 

gend  of  the  search  for  holiness,  if  written  for 
present-day  readers,  must  be  translated  from  the 
language  of  charity  into  the  language  of  industrial 
life,  and  the  new  Sir  Launfal  finds  his  Holy  Grail 
through  productive  labor  rather  than  through  pity- 
ing love. 

"  They  who  tread  the  path  of  labor,  follow  where  Christ's  feet 

have  trod, 

They  who  work  without  complaining,  do  the  holy  will  of  God. 

Where  the  weary  toil  together,  there  am  I  among  my  own, 

Where  the  tired  workman  sleepeth,  there  am  I  with  him 

alone. 

******* 

This  is  the  Gospel  of  labor — ring  it,  ye  bells  of  the  kirk. 
The  Lord  of  Love  came  down  from  above  to  live  with  the 
men  who  work."  ^ 

A  second  characteristic  of  the  modern  social 
question  is  quite  as  unmistakable  and  significant. 
Whatever  aspect  of  it  we  approach,  we  find  the 
discussion  and  agitation  of  the  present  time  turn- 
ing in  a  quite  unprecedented  degree  to  moral 
issues,  and  using  the  language  and  weapons  of 
a  moral  reform.  The  social  question  of  the  pres- 
ent time  is  an  ethical  question.  Selfishness  enough 
exists,  it  is  true,  among  advocates  of  social  change ; 
class  hatred  is  also  there,  and  the  lust  for  power, 
and  the  primitive  instincts  which,  as  Hobbes  said, 
make  each  man  a  wolf  to  his  neighbor;  but  the 
power  and  the  pathos  of  the  modern  social  move- 
ment reside  in  the  passionate  demand,  now  heard 

1  Henry  Van  Dyke,  "The  Toiling  of  Felix,"  1898. 


10      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

on  every  hand,  for  justice,  brotherhood,  liberty, 
the  chance  for  a  human  way  of  life.  In  his 
"Progress  and  Poverty"  Mr.  Henry  George  re- 
marks, "  If  our  inquiry  into  the  cause  which  makes 
low  wages  and  pauperism  the  accompaniments  of 
material  progress  has  any  value,  it  will  bear  trans- 
lation from  the  language  of  economics  into  that 
of  ethics,  and,  as  the  source  of  social  evils,  show  a 
wrong."  ^  That  is  the  note  of  the  present  situation. 
The  social  question,  which  on  its  surface  is  an  eco- 
nomic question,  issues  in  reality  from  a  sense  of 
wrong.  This  ethical  note  is  struck  by  the  new 
philanthropy,  in  its  unprecedented  sense  of  social 
obligation,  its  call  for  personal  devotion,  its  demand 
for  self -discipline  and  wisdom ;  and  the  same  note 
is  heard  in  the  harsher  tone  of  the  labor  agitation, 
declaring  against  the  iniquity  of  the  employer  and 
the  inconsistency  of  private  ownership  with  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  Behind  many  an  economic 
fallacy  which  would  seem  to  have  no  right  to  per- 
manent influence  lies  this  force  of  moral  feeling, 
which  supports  the  irrational  creed,  as  a  building 
supports  the  scaffolding  which  leans  against  it. 

Here  is  a  quality  of  the  modern  social  question 
which  one  immediately  perceives  to  be  a*  sign  of 
promise.  Misdirected,  passionate,  inarticulate,  the 
cry  for  social  righteousness  may  be;  but  after  all 

1 "  Progress  and  Poverty,"  Book  VII,  Ch.  I.  See  also,  Pref- 
ace to  fourth  edition :  "  The  inquiry  passes  into  the  field  of  ethics. 
...  It  also  identifies  the  law  of  social  life  with  the  great  moral 
law  of  justice." 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    II 

it  is  an  unmistakable  sign  of  social  progress,  when 
millions  of  people,  in  all  lands  and  of  all  conditions, 
are  trying,  however  blindly,  to  discover  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong  in  social  conduct,  and  to 
reach  some  consistency  between  their  social  condi- 
tion and  their  social  ideals.  "  The  real  solution  of 
this  problem,"  said  Professor  Ingram  to  a  Trades- 
Union  Congress  in  Dublin,  "  can  be  effected  only 
by  such  reorganization  of  ideas  and  renovation  of 
sentiment  as  will  rise  to  the  dimensions  of  an 
intellectual  and  moral  reform."  ^  It  is  not  by 
accident,  then,  that  the  social  question  is  most 
conspicuous  in  the  most  prosperous  and  best 
educated  countries.  It  is  one  expression  of  pros- 
perity and  education.  There  is  no  social  question 
in  Turkey  or  Egypt.  The  problem  of  social  jus- 
tice does  not  grow  out  of  the  worst  social  condi- 
tions, but  out  of  the  best.  It  is  not  a  mark  of 
social  decadence,  but  of  social  vitality.  It  is  one 
expression  of  popular  education,  intellectual  lib- 
erty, and  quickened  sentiments  of  sympathy  and 
love,  and  there  can  be  nothing  but  good  in  the  end 
to  come  of  an  agitation  which  fundamentally  repre- 
sents a  renaissance  of  moral  responsibility.     • 

It  is  its  ethical  quality,  moreover,  which  gives 
to  the  social  question  of  the  present  day  its 
commanding  interest  for  generous  minds.  Great 
numbers  of  men  and  women  are  lavishing  their 
time  and  thought  on  social  service,  without  pre- 
cisely defining  to  themselves  why  such  occupations 

iKaufmann,  "Christian  Socialism,"  1888,  p.  12. 


12      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

open,  as  they  are  pursued,  into  a  peculiar  peace 
and  joy.  There  is  nothing  intrinsically  picturesque 
or  noble  about  the  poor  or  degraded;  there  is 
little  romance  in  the  administration  of  details  in 
industrial  or  social  life.  Why  is  it,  then,  that  time, 
ability,  money,  and  sympathy  are  in  such  abun- 
dance offered  for  such  service.^  It  is  because, 
through  these  channels  of  activity,  the  moral  life 
of  the  time  finds  its  natural  outlet.  It  is  a  great 
source  of  happiness  to  be  associated  with  people 
who  are  trying,  however  imperfectly,  to  make  a 
better  world.  Many  a  life  emerges  through  such 
association  from  an  experience  of  narrowness  and 
emptiness  into  one  of  breadth,  fulness,  and  satis- 
faction. It  is  like  a  journey  from  one's  own 
village  to  a  foreign  land,  from  which  one  returns 
with  a  new  sense  of  human  kinship,  a  more  com- 
prehensive sympathy,  and  a  profounder  gratitude 
for  his  own  blessings.  The  advent  of  the  social 
question  in  its  present  form  has  brought  with  it  a 
great  and  happy  revival  of  ethical  confidence. 
The  older  ethics  was  individual,  introspective, 
self-examining,  and  its  stream  grew  narrow  and 
uninviting  and  dry;  but  into  its  bed  there  has 
broken  this  new  flood  of  social  interests,  like  a 
spring  freshet  filling  the  channel  to  its  banks ;  and 
now  a  score  of  outlets  can  hardly  contain  the 
stream  of  philanthropic  service  which  sweeps  on  to 
the  refreshing  of  the  world. ^ 

^  The  ethical  character  of  the  social  question  is  observed  not  by 
the  social  reformers  only,  but  by  the  philosophers  of  history :  Th. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    1 3 

In  the  light,  then,  of  these  two  characteristics  of 
the  modern  social  question,  its  radical  intention  and 
its  ethical  passion,  a  further  quality  which  one 
observes  in  the  present  situation  may  appear  at 
first  sight  surprising.  It  would  seem  as  if  there 
were  an  obvious  kinship  between  the  spirit  of  this 

Ziegler,  "Die  soziale  Frage  eine  sittliche  Frage,"  1891,  a  stirring 
attempt  "  to  examine  critically  the  conditions  which  exist,  and  to 
consider  how  they  may  be  brought  to  an  issue  in  which  our  highest 
good  shall  not  be  lost,"  s.  8.  See  also :  Jodl,  "  Volkswirtschafts- 
lehre  und  Ethik,  Deutsche  Zeit-  und  Streitfragen,"  1886;  F. 
Hasler  (from  the  Roman  Catholic  standpoint),  "Ueber  das  Ver- 
haltniss  der  Volkswirtschaft  und  Moral,"  1887;  Bonar,  "  Philosophy 
and  Political  Economy  in  some  of  their  Relations,"  1893,  ^k.  V; 
International  Journal  of  Ethics^  January,  1897,  p.  I9I»  C.  S.  Devas, 
*•  The  Restoration  of  Economics  to  Ethics,"  "  All  [these  sciences] 
move  in  an  ethical  atmosphere;  ...  all  have  principally  to  do 
with  what  is  right  and  wrong " ;  L.  Ragaz,  "  Evangelium  und 
Moderne  Moral,"  1898;  and  for  the  history  of  this  "  socialization 
of  ideals,"  Stein,  "  Die  soziale  Frage  im  Lichte  der  Philosophie," 
1897,  especially  s.  660  ff.,  "Die  Sozialisierung  der  Religion." 
Compare  also  the  evidence  of  the  economists  :  A.  T.  Hadley, 
"  Economics,"  p.  23,  "  The  modern  economist  .  .  .  would  say  that 
nothing  was  economically  beneficent  which  was  ethically  bad  ;  he 
would  insist  with  equal  force  that  nothing  could  be  ethically  good 
which  was  economically  disastrous";  C.  D.  Wright,  "The  Relation 
of  Political  Economy  to  the  Labor  Question,"  1882;  F.  A.  Lange, 
"  Die  Arbeiterfrage,"  1879.  Note  also  the  remarkable  expansion  of 
systematic  ethics  into  the  sphere  of  the  social  question:  Wundt, 
"Ethik,"  1886,  ss.  159  flf.,  498  ff.,  529  ff.;  Paulsen,  "System  der 
Ethik,"  1889,  s.  698  ff.;  and  his  paper  before  the  loter  Evang.-soz. 
Kongress,  1899,  s.  95,  "  Wandlungen  des  Bildungsideals  in  ihrem 
Zusammenhang  mit  der  sozialen  Entwickelung";  Runze,  "Prak- 
tische  Ethik,"  1891,  s.  65  ff.,  with  much  bibliographical  material ; 
H.  S.  Nash,  "Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience,"  1897,  ?•  223  ff.; 
Newman  Smyth,  "Christian  Ethics,"  Ch.  IV;  "The  Social  Prob- 
lem and  Christian  Duties." 


14      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

I  new  philanthropy  and  the  spirit  of  the  Christian 
I  religion.  In  both  there  is  the  same  sense  of  value 
in  the  humblest  human  soul,  the  same  desire  for  a 
spiritual  democracy,  the  same  call  for  self-sacrifice, 
the  same  readiness  to  overthrow  existing  traditions 
and  institutions  for  the  sake  of  righteousness. 
The  social  question,  one  might  anticipate,  would 
be  at  heart  not  only  an  ethical  question  but  a 
rehgious  question  also.  **  The  religious  element," 
said  Mazzini,  "  is  universal,  immortal.  .  .  .  Every 
great  revolution  has  borne  its  stamp  and  revealed 
it  in  its  origin  or  in  its  aim.  .  .  .  The  instinctive 
philosophy  of  the  people  is  faith  in  God."  ^ 
**  Socialism,"  it  has  been  remarked,  "in  its  most 
explicit  and  absolute  form,  has  a  great  attraction 
for  the  masses,  by  reason  of  that  quality  which  it 
possesses  in  common  with  the  gospels.  ...  It  is 
this  factor  which  has  lent  to  those  who  profess 
and  propagate  it  the  illusion  of  an  apostolate,  and 
has  inspired  in  those  who  are  its  objects  an  enthu- 
siasm extending  to  fanaticism,  to  crime  devoid  of 
personal  motive,  to  the  scaffold  itself."  ^  Yet, 
nothing  is  in  fact  more  conspicuous  than  the  lack 
of  practical  cooperation,  and  in  many  instances 
the  distrust  and  hostility,  which  prevail  between 
these  two  ways  of  social  service.  Sometimes 
there  is  a  candid  dread  of  theological  complica- 
tions,  as  when   scientific   charity   lays   down  the 

1 "  Faith  and  the  Future,"  1835. 

2«'Nuova  Anthologia,"  16  November,  1898,  p.  269.     F.  Nobili- 
Vitelleschi,  "  11  Socialisrao  di  Stato," 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    1 5 

principle  of  abstinence  from  proselytizing.  Some 
times  there  is  a  sheer  disappointment  with  the 
social  effectiveness  of  the  Christian  Church,  such 
as  forced  one  of  the  most  judicious  labor  leaders  in 
England  to  say  that  he  saw  no  place  for  religion  in 
the  working-man's  programme.  Sometimes,  again, 
there  is  a  genuine  reproduction  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples of  conduct  without  formal  recognition  of  the 
Christian  Church,  as  in  the  extraordinary  growth 
of  the  cooperative  system  in  Great  Britain.  In 
many  such  ways  of  social  activity  the  instincts 
which  in  other  centuries  would  have  drawn 
people  toward  religion  are  finding  their  satisfaction 
without  religion ;  or,  rather,  are  finding  in  philan- 
thropy or  labor  unions  or  cooperative  societies  or 
kindred  social  interests  practical  equivalents  for 
religion,  satisfying  hearts  with  generous  emotions 
and  offering  strong  persuasions  to  loyalty  and 
fellowship.  When,  further,  we  turn  to  the  more 
radical  expressions  of  social  discontent,  the  prevail- 
ing attitude  toward  religion  becomes  even  less 
friendly.  It  is  not  necessary  to  notice  the  merely 
vulgar  talk  of  agitators  who  make  it  a  part  of 
their  stock  in  trade  to  ridicule  and  vilify  the 
religious  life.^     It  should  also  be  observed  that  in 

1 A  collection  of  such  coarser  utterances  may  be  found  in  Kauf- 
mann,  "Christian  Socialism,"  1888,  Ch.  IX;  and  in  profusion  in 
Kohler,  "  Sozialistische  Irrlehren  von  der  Entstehung  des  Christen- 
tums,"  1899,  s.  21  ff.  "To  suppress  religion  which  provides  an 
illusory  happiness  is  to  establish  the  claim  of  real  happiness," 
"Nouveau  Parti,"  1884  (Kaufmann,  p.  195).  "The  cross,  once  a 
symbol  of  suffering,  is  now  a  symbol  of  slavery,"  To-day ^  January, 


1 6      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  official  programmes  of  social  revolution  religion 
is,  as  a  rule,  declared  to  be  a  matter  of  personal 
decision,  as  though  neutrality  toward  it  were  pro- 
posed.^ The  expositors  of  revolutionary  prin- 
ciples, however,  maintain  no  such  reserve.  They 
do  not  scruple  to  affirm  that  among  the  pillars  of 
the  present  social  order,  which  must  be  over- 
thrown if  the  better  social  order  is  to  prevail,  are 
the  institutions  and  habits  of  the  Christian  religion. 
**  The  revolution,"  said  Bebel,  "  differs  from  all 
its  predecessors  in  this,  that  it  does  not  seek  for 
new  forms  of  religion,  but  denies  religion  alto- 
gether." 2  "  The  first  word  of  religion,"  wrote 
Friedrich  Engels,  "  is  a  lie."  "The  idea  of  God," 
said  Marx,  "  must  be  destroyed ;  it  is  the  key- 
stone of  a  perverted  civilization."  "  It  is  use- 
less," adds  Mr.  Belfort  Bax,  "blinking  the  fact 
that  the  Christian  doctrine  is  more  revolting  to  the 
higher  moral  sense  of  to-day  than  the  Saturnalia 
of  the  cult  of  Proserpina  could  have  been  to  the 
conscience  of  the  early  Christians ; "  ^  and  in 
another  place  he  says :  /*  In  what  sense  socialism 

1894  (Kaufmann,  p.  3).  "We  are  all,  I  take  it,  disciples  of  the 
materialist  philosophy  of  history  derived  from  Marx,"  Remarks  at 
Stuttgart  Congress  (Kohler,  s.  7). 

i"Erklarung  der  Religion  zur  Privatsache,"  Programm  der 
sozialdemokratischen  Partei  Deutschlands.  See  also,  Nation, 
Nov.  12,  1891,  "German  Socialists  in  Council,"  an  account  of  the 
Erfurt  Congress  of  1891,  F.  G.  Peabody. 

2  «  Die  wahre  Gestalt  des  Christentums,"  2.  Aufl.,  1887,  quoted  by 
Herrmann ;  "  Religion  und  Sozialdemokratie,"  2ter  Evang.-soz. 
Kongress,  s.  13. 

»  Quoted,  Pall  Mall  Magazine,  April,  1895. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    1 7 

is  not  religion  will  be  now  clear.  It  utterly 
despises  *  the  other  world,*  with  all  its  stage  prop- 
erties,—  that  is,  the  present  objects  of  religion. 
In  what  sense  it  is  not  irreligious  will  be  also, 
I  think,  tolerably  clear;  it  brings  back  religion 
from  heaven  to  earth.  ..."  "It  is  in  the  hope  and 
struggle  for  the  higher  social  life  that  .  .  .  the  so- 
cialist finds  his  ideal,  his  religion."  "  The  socialist 
requires  no  transformed  Christian  rites  to  aid  him 
in  keeping  his  ideal  before  him.  .  .  ."  "It  is 
only  natural  that  the  sociaUst  should  resent  with 
some  indignation  the  continual  reference  of  ideal 
perfection  to  a  semi-mythical  Syrian  of  the  first 
century,  when  he  sees  higher  types  even  in  some 
men  walking  this  upper  earth."  ^  In  short,  as 
the  eloquent  Pastor  Naumann  concludes,  "Social 
democracy  turns  against  Christ  and  the  Church 
because  it  sees  in  them  only  the  means  of  provid- 
ing a  religious  foundation  for  the  existing  eco- 
nomic order."  * 

1  Bax,  "  The  Religion  of  Socialism,"  1886,  pp.  52,  96. 

*  F.  Naumann, "  Das  soziale  Programm  der  evangelischen  Kirche," 
1891,  s.  49.  The  attitude  of  scientific  socialism  to  the  Christian 
religion  is  sufficiently  indicated  by :  "  Geschichte  des  Sozialismus  in 
Einzeldarstellungen,"  1895,  3ter  Band,  F.  Mehring,  "  Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Sozialdemokratie,"  1897,  2ter  Teil,  s.  387  flf.,  Die  Christ- 
lich-soziale  Agitation;  Engels,  "  Zur  Geschichte  des  Urchristen- 
tums,  Neue  Zeit,"  1894-1895;  Liitgenau,  "Natiirliche  und 
sozialistische  Religion,"  1894;  Stein,  "Die  Soziale  Frage  im 
Lichte  der  Philosophic,"  s.  660  ff.,  "  Die  Sozialisierung  der  Reli- 
gion." The  popular  acceptance  of  this  view  is  illustrated  by  Rade, 
"  Die  sittlich-religiose  Gedankenwelt  unserer  Industriearbeiter,"  9ter 
Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1898,  s.  66;  and  by  P.  Gohre,  "Drei  Monate 
c 


1 8      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Here  we  come  upon  one  of  the  most  curious 
and  important  facts  of  the  revolutionary  movement. 
At  first  sight  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  a 
movement  which  appears  to  propose  simply  an 
economic  change  should  be  colored  by  this  antipa- 
thy to  spiritual  ideals.  The  truth  is,  however,  that 
this  characteristic  of  social  radicalism  proceeds, 
in  the  main,  not  from  an  economic  necessity,  but 
from  the  philosophy  of  history  with  which  the 
German  school  of  scientific  socialism  happens  to 
be  associated.  Marx  and  Lassalle,  the  apostles  of 
the  German  socialist  gospel,  though  of  very  differ- 
ent types  of  character,  were  both  of  Jewish  extrac- 
tion, and  both  had  been  swept  into  the  current  of 
the  Hegelian  philosophy,  in  its  more  radical  inter- 
pretation. To  this  way  of  thought  the  universe 
presented  itself  as  a  self-unfolding  process  of 
material  forces,  one  result  of  which  was  expressed 
in  the  shifting  opinions  and  beliefs  of  men.  These 
doctrines  and  ideals  were,  to  the  left  wing  of  Hegel- 
ianism,  not  ghmpses  of  reahty,  but  effects  of  social 
conditions.      Spiritual  ideals   were   the   result  of 

Fabrikarbeiter,"  1891,  s.  142  fF.  Adequate  criticism  of  this  position 
is  offered  by :  Herrmann,  "  Religion  und  Sozialdemokratie,"  2ter 
Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1891;  A.  Wagner,  "Das  neue  sozialdemo- 
kratische  Programm,"  3ter  Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1892.  See  also 
the  less  important  discussion  in  Flint,  "Socialism,"  1894,  Ch.  IX, 
"  Socialism  and  Religion."  The  whole  subject  is  treated  in  elabo- 
rate detail  by  H.  Kohler  (op.  cit.).     So  Uhland :  — 

"  Ich  ging  zur  Tempelhalle  zu  horen  christlich  Recht, 
Hier  innen  Briider  alle,  dort  draussen  Herr  und  Knecht  I 
Der  Festesrede  Giebel  war  :  Duck  dich,  schweig  dabei  1 
Als  ob  die  ganze  Bibel  ein  Buch  der  Konige  sei." 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    I9 

economic  circumstances,  not  revelations  of  abso- 
lute truth.  Given  a  certain  range  of  economic 
condition,  and  there  would  ensue  a  certain  quality 
of  spiritual  belief  or  of  religious  fellowship. 
*'  Every  man,"  said  Bebel,  "  is  a  product  of  his 
time  and  an  instrument  of  circumstances.  Chris- 
tianity, then,  the  prevailing  spiritual  expression  of 
the  present  economic  order,  must  pass  away  as  a 
better  social  order  arrives.  Indeed,  the  wise 
reformer  should  apply  himself  to  economic  revolu- 
tion exclusively,  because  he  is  sure  that  the  evanes- 
cent imaginations  which  capitalism  has  suggested 
will  disappear  like  dew  when  the  morning  of 
socialism  arrives."  It  would  not  at  first  seem  as 
if  such  a  philosophy  of  the  universe  could  have 
had  great  significance  for  a  parliamentary  party  of 
plain  working-people ;  yet  the  fact  is  that  it  tinges 
a  great  portion  of  the  talk  of  labor  agitators,  falls 
in  with  many  lower  impulses,  becomes  the  justifica- 
tion of  many  natural  prejudices,  and  contributes 
greatly  to  the  consolidation  of  the  working-class 
against  the  privileged  and  the  pious.  It  is  not 
enough  to  say  that  the  socialist  programme  is  indif- 
ferent to  religion.  It  undertakes  to  provide  a  sub- 
stitute for  reHgion.  It  is  a  religion,  so  far  as  religion 
is  represented  by  a  philosophy  of  life,  to  which  men 
give  themselves  with  passionate  attachment.  It 
sets  itself  against  Christianity  because,  as  Lieb- 
knecht  said,  "  That  is  the  religion  of  private  prop- 
erty and  of  the  respectable  classes."  It  offers 
itself  as  an  alternative  to  the  Christian  religion. 


20     JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

It  is,  as  a  distinguished  critic  has  remarked,  not 
merely  a  new  economic  and  social  programme,  but 
proposes  to  compete  with  Christianity  in  offering 
a  comprehensive  creed.^ 

We  find,  then,  a  gulf  of  alienation  and  misinterpre- 
tation lying  between  the  social  movement  and  the 
Christian  religion,  —  a  gulf  so  wide  and  deep  as  to 
recall  the  judgment  of  Schopenhauer,  that  Chris- 
tianity, in  its  real  attitude  toward  the  world,  is  abso- 
lutely remote  from  the  spirit  of  the  modern  age. 
Yet,  from  the  time  when  the  social  question  began 
to  take  its  present  form,  there  have  not  failed  to  be 
heard  a  series  of  protests  against  this  alienation  of 
the  new  movement  from  the  organization  of  the 
Christian  life.  To  any  one,  indeed,  who  has  once 
recognized  the  ethical  quality  of  the  modern  social 
question,  the  interpretation  of  it  in  terms  of  sheer 
philosophical  materialism  must  appear  a  perversion 
of  its  characteristic  aim,  which  can  have  occurred 
only  through  an  unfortunate  historical  accident. 
What  reason  has  the  Christian  Church  for  existing, 
many  persons  are  now  asking,  if  it  is  not  to  have 
a  part  in  that  shaping  of  a  better  world  which  at 
the  same  time  is  the  aim  of  the  social  movement  ? 
What  was  the  gospel  of  Jesus  if  it  was  not,  as  he 
himself  called  it,  a  gospel  for  the  poor,  the  blind, 

iH.  Holtzmann,  "Die  ersten  Christen  und  die  soziale  Frage" 
("  Wiss.  Vortrage  uber  rel.  Fragen,"  1880),  s.  55.  So  Nathusius, 
"Die  Mitarbeit  der  Kirche  an  der  Losung  der  sozialen  Frage," 
1897,  s.  115  ff.,  "Radical  socialism  must  be  in  opposition  to  pre- 
vailing religion,  because  it  is  itself  a  religion." 


^ ,  Te  R  A  R 

^   ^  orTH6 

OF 
COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF  ^f^^efeffTNG        21 

the  prisoners,  and  the  broken-hearted  ?  Is  it  not 
possible  that  the  social  movement,  which  so  often 
seems  remote  from,  or  even  hostile  to,  the  work  of 
the  Christian  religion,  may  be  in  reality  nothing 
else  than  a  modern  expansion  of  that  religion? 
May  it  not  come  to  pass  that  the  solution  of  the 
social  question  shall  be  found  in  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion?  And  is  it  not,  on  the 
other  hand,  evident  that  the  only  test  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  which  the  modern  world  will  regard 
as  adequate  is  its  applicability  to  the  solution  of  the 
social  question?  Must  we  not,  as  Maurice  said, 
either  socialize  Christianity  or  Christianize  social- 
ism ?  Such  considerations  have  prompted  a  great 
number  of  propositions, —  experimental  and  philo- 
sophical, reactionary  and  radical, —  looking  to  the 
reconciliation  of  economic  needs  with  Christian 
ideals.  They  range  all  the  way  from  the  most  obvi- 
ous and  practical  undertakings  to  the  most  vision- 
ary and  speculative  schemes.  Each  plan  creates 
strange  companionships, —  Catholics  with  Protest- 
ants, scholars  with  hand-workers, —  yet  all  are  at  one 
in  the  desire  to  find  a  place  for  the  Christian  life  in 
the  modern  world ;  and  while  a  complete  history 
of  such  schemes  is  quite  beyond  our  present  pur- 
pose, it  may  be  instructive  to  indicate  briefly  a  few 
of  the  ways  in  which  this  reconciliation  has  been 
sought. 

The  first  and  most  elementary  scheme  thus  pro- 
posed is  that  of  a  literal  reproduction  of  the  eco- 


22      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

nomic  life  of  primitive  Christianity.  The  disciples, 
we  read  in  the  book  of  Acts,  "  had  all  things  com- 
mon " ;  and  "sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and 
parted  them  to  all,  according  as  any  man  had 
need";  *' and  not  one  of  them  said  that  aught  of 
the  things  which  he  possessed  was  his  own."  ^ 
These  passages  have  given  encouragement  to  a 
long  series  of  experiments  in  Christian  communism, 
sometimes  monastic  in  form,  sometimes  ascetic  in 
bond  of  union,  but  always  inspired  by  the  hope  of 
practically  establishing  a  Christian  way  of  life  in 
the  midst  of  an  unchristianized  world.  No  one 
can  recall  these  tranquil  communities  of  pious  and 
self-effacing  souls  without  a  touch  of  admiration. 
It  is  reassuring  to  see  the  lusts  of  the  world,  which 
dominate  so  many  lives,  powerless  to  disquiet 
or  control.  The  lingering  communities  which  still 
attempt,  in  unambitious  seclusion,  this  reproduc- 
tion of  apostolic  life  are  to  our  time  what  the 
best  of  monastic  life  was  in  its  own  age  —  spots  of 
calm  in  the  centre  of  the  cyclonic  activity  of  the 
world. 

Yet  these  conscientious  attempts  to  revive  the 
industrial  life  of  the  first  disciples  have  no  substan- 
tial justification,  either  in  economics  or  in  Christian 
history.  On  the  one  hand,  they  do  not  meet  the 
modern  problem  of  economic  life ;  they  simply  run 
away  from  it.  It  is  impossible  for  such  communi- 
ties to  enter  on  a  large  scale  into  direct  competi- 
tion with  the  methods  of  the  ^reat  industry ;  and  it 

1  Acts  ii.  44;  iv.  32. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING        23 

is  equally  impossible  for  the  needs  of  the  world 
—  or,  for  that  matter,  of  the  community  itself  — 
to  be  supplied  by  these  primitive  ways  of  pro- 
duction. Communism,  while  it  rejects  the  eco- 
nomic order  surrounding  it,  still  rests  on  that 
order.  The  factories,  railways,  great  cities,  and 
exchanges  of  commerce  provide  the  very  condi- 
tions which  make  it  possible  for  the  privileged 
few  to  retreat  to  a  life  of  calm.  It  was  the 
same  with  the  monastic  system.  It  could  not  be 
for  the  many,  still  less  for  all.  The  world's  work 
had  to  go  on,  and  the  unproductive  saints  had  to 
be,  in  large  part,  supported  by  the  toiling  and 
unsanctified  world  which  lay  about  the  monastery's 
walls.  Christian  communism  then,  even  at  its 
best,  ic  not  an  advance,  but  a  retreat.  Its  disci- 
ples deceive  themselves  with  the  impression  that 
they  have  subdued  the  world,  when  in  reality  they 
have  fled  from  the  world.  The  only  way  out  of 
economic  disorders  and  imperfections  is  through 
them ;  and  the  Christian  life  in  the  present  age 
must  be  sought,  not  in  reversion  to  an  impossible 
past,  but  in  the  creation  of  a  better  future. 

To  these  considerations  must  be  added  the  fact 
that  these  supposed  reproductions  of  primitive 
Christian  economics  have  no  adequate  justification 
even  in  the  Scriptural  passages  on  which  they 
appear  to  rest.  The  social  life  of  the  first  disci- 
ples, when  more  closely  scrutinized,  is  seen  to  have 
been  something  quite  different  from  the  rule  of  a 
monastic  order  with  its  vow  of  poverty,  or  of  a 


24      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

modern  society  with  its  communal  control  of  pro- 
ductive industry  and  family  life.  Indeed,  it  is 
quite  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  those  first  days  of 
Christian  discipleship  to  think  of  them  as  devoted 
to  the  estabUshing  of  any  economic  system  or  the 
prescribing  of  any  fixed  rule  of  social  Ufe.  There 
is,  in  the  first  place,  no  evidence  that  what  is  re- 
ported of  the  little  company  at  Jerusalem  became 
in  any  degree  a  general  practice,  as  though  enjoined 
by  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  No  other  instance  of 
communal  ownership  is  cited  in  the  book  of  Acts ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  mother  of  Mark  con- 
tinues to  own  her  home  in  Jerusalem,^  and  volun- 
tary relief  is  sent  from  Antioch  by  "every  man 
according  to  his  ability."  ^  The  apostle  Paul  knows 
nothing  of  such  communistic  regulations.  "  Let  each 
man,"  he  says,  "do  according  as  he  hath  purposed  in 
his  heart ;  not  grudgingly,  or  of  necessity. "  ^  "  Upon 
the  first  day  of  the  week  let  each  one  of  you  lay  by 
him  in  store,  as  he  may  prosper."  *  "We  command 
and  exhort  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  with 
quietness  they  work,  and  eat  their  own  bread."  ^ 
In  short,  the  communism  of  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
Hke  the  gift  of  tongues  described  in  the  same 
chapter,  was  a  spontaneous,  unique,  and  unrepeated 
manifestation  of  that  elevation  and  unity  of  spirit 
which  possessed  the  little  company  in  the  first 
glow  of  their  new  faith.  Still  further,  this  shar- 
ing of  each  other's  possessions,  which  was  thus 

1  Acts  xii.  12.  2  Acts  xi.  29.  *  2  Cor.  ix.  7. 

*  I  Cor.  xvi.  2.  *  2  Thess.  iii.  12. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING         2$ 

for  the  moment  a  sign  of  their  perfect  brother- 
hood, was  even  then  no  formal  or  compulsory  sys- 
tem. The  narrative  immediately  goes  on  to  say 
that  one  disciple,  Barnabas,  "having  a  field,  sold 
it,  and  brought  the  money,  and  laid  it  at  the 
apostles*  feet,"^ — singling  this  man  out,  it  would 
appear,  as  unusually  munificent.  In  the  case  of 
Ananias  and  Sapphira,^  it  is  not  the  keeping  back 
part  of  the  price  of  the  land,  but  the  lie  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  is  condemned.  "Whiles  it  re- 
mained, did  it  not  remain  thine  own  ?  and  after  it 
was  sold,  was  it  not  in  thy  power  ? "  ^  This  man 
and  woman  wanted  to  appear  to  have  made  the 
same  exceptional  sacrifice  which  had  been  praised 
in  the  case  of  Barnabas,  and  it  was  their  fraudu- 
lent virtue,  not  the  reserving  of  their  private  prop- 
erty, which  made  their  sin  so  base. 

Thus  the  so-called  communism  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity was  simply  a  glad,  free,  domestic  relationship 
of  generous  aid  and  service,  such  as  any  modern 
Christian  congregation  might  legitimately  strive  to 
imitate.  It  did  not  abolish  distinctions  of  rich  and 
poor,  still  less  did  it  enter  the  sphere  of  productive 
industry.  Its  economics  were  those  of  a  loving 
family.  Each  man  might  keep  his  own  posses- 
sions, but  "  not  one  of  them  said  that  aught  of  the 
things  which  he  possessed  was  his  own."  The 
hearts  of  the  first  believers  were  stirred  to  self-for- 
getful and  self-sacrificing  service,  and  the  church 
at  Jerusalem  soon   became   in   such   a  degree   a 

1  Acts  iv.  37.  ^  Acts  V.  i-io.  8  Acts  v.  4. 


26      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

refuge  for  the  poor  that  it  was  in  need  of  mission- 
ary help  from  Gentile  congregations.  In  all  this, 
however,  there  is  no  warrant  for  identifying  Chris- 
tian faith  with  a  single  system  of  economic  distribu- 
tion. Gladly  as  Jesus  would  have  welcomed  that 
new  glow  of  loyalty  which  had  "  all  things  com- 
mon," and  certainly  as  he  would  recognize  the 
same  self-effacing  love  in  many  an  uncompetitive 
and  unambitious  community  to-day,  it  is  both  im- 
practicable and  unhistorical  to  regard  communism 
as  that  solution  of  the  social  question  to  which 
the  New  Testament  is  committed.  Fortunately 
for  the  Christian  life,  Jesus  does  not  shut  it  within 
the  limits  of  any  single  social  scheme,  still  less  ot 
a  programme  which  can  have  no  important  placi 
in  the  organization  of  the  modern  world.^ 

1  It  is  as  a  rule  assumed  by  interpreters  of  the  New  Testament 
with  socialist  sympathies  that  the  communism  of  the  book  of  Acts 
is  a  genuine  anticipation  of  the  modern  protest  against  capitalism. 
Nitti,  "  Catholic  Socialism,"  London,  1895,  P*  ^2,  "  It  is  certain  that 
the  early  Christians  practised  communism  or  community  of  goods. 
.  .  .  The  first  Christians  did  not  seek  to  acquire  wealth;  like 
Christ,  they  sought  to  annihilate  it.  .  .  .  Christianity  was  a 
vast  economic  revolution  more  than  anything  else."  Herron,  "  Be- 
tween Caesar  and  Jesus,"  p.  109,  •'  Apostolic  Christianity  took 
seriously  the  economic  facts  of  the  spiritual  life.  Men  understood 
that  in  becoming  Jesus's  disciples  it  was  incumbent  upon  them  to 
surrender  private  interests."  Renan,  "  The  Apostles  "  (tr.  J.  H. 
Allen,  1898),  "The  account  in  Acts  is  in  perfect  accord  with  what 
we  know  of  the  other  ascetic  religions,  —  Buddhism,  for  example,  — 
which  always  begin  with  cenobitic  (or  communistic)  life,  the  first 
adepts  being  a  host  of  mendicant  monks."  Todt,  "  Der  radikale 
deutsche  Sozialismus  und  die  christliche  Gesellschaft,"  2.  Aufl.,  s.  70, 
"  The  first  Christian  community  was  penetrated  by  the  thought  of 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING  '  2/ 

A  second  and  more  familiar  way  of  applying 
the  Christian  spirit  to  the  social  question  is  the 
way   of    Christian    philanthropy.      The   work   of 

the  unity  of  interests.  Each  strove  for  all  and  all  for  each.  In 
this  striving  they  were  communists  as  our  socialists  are  to-day." 
Yet  Todt  later,  s.  i88  fF.,  admits  that  this  was  no  fixed  or  invariable 
rule.  "  The  New  Testament  represents  human  liberty  and  accepts 
any  form  of  property-holding  which  fulfils  this  condition,  whether 
it  be  private  property  in  real  estate  or  communal  ownership  in  the 
socialist  sense."  For  the  prevailing  teaching  of  scientific  socialists, 
see  the  abundant  literature  cited  and  the  criticism  offered  in  Koh- 
ler,  "  Sozialistische  Irrlehren  von  der  Entstehung  des  Christentums," 
1899,  s.  85  ff. 

On  the  other  hand,  New  Testament  critics  of  the  first  rank 
are  practically  agreed  in  recognizing  that  no  real  analogy  exists 
between  the  modern  situation  and  the  early  Christian  practice: 
Pfleiderer,  "  Urchristentum,"  1887,  s.  24;  Weizsacker,  "Apost. 
Zeitalter,"  2.  Aufl.,  1892,  s.  47;  and  the  conclusive  discussion  of 
Wendt  (Meyer's  "Kommentar,  Apostelgesch.,"  s.  102  and  120). 
See  also,  Rogge,  "  Der  irdische  Besitz  im  Neuen  Testament,"  1899, 
s.  73,  "The  Koivcjvla  of  the  first  Christians  is  not  an  institution 
like  the  communism  of  the  Essenes  or  Therapeutes,  rather  a  condi- 
tion marked,  as  Uhlhorn  fittingly  says,  *  by  absence  of  institutions.' " 
Uhlhorn,  "  Charity  in  the  Early  Church,"  p.  74,  "  We  might  as  well 
speak  of  the  institution  of  a  community  of  goods  in  a  family  .  .  . 
the  thought  with  which  we  are  dealing  is  not  an  institution  of  a 
community  of  goods,  but  noble  almsgiving."  M.  von  Nathusius, 
"  Die  Mitarbeit  der  Kirche  an  der  Losung  der  sozialen  Frage," 
2.  Aufl.,  1897,  s.  403,  "The  communism  of  the  first  congregation 
in  Jerusalem  consisted  essentially  in  a  point  of  view.  No  one  said 
of  those  things  which  were  his  own  that  they  were  his  own;  but  it 
must  be  recognized  that  the  basis  of  this  moral  duty  lay  in  the  right 
to  private  property.  The  Christian  must  spend  his  private  property 
for  the  general  good."  H.  Holtzmann,  in  his  elaborate  study  of  this 
subject,  "  Die  ersten  Christen  und  die  soziale  Frage,"  1882,  goes 
still  farther,  concluding  not  only  that  (s.  30),  "  No  compulsory 
abandonment  of  property  relations  or  legally  introduced  commu* 


28      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

religion  in  a  world  of  social  needs  is  here  held 
to  be,  not  the  impracticable  imitation  of  primi- 
tive social  life,  but  the  illumination  of  the  world 
as  it  is  with  works  of  mercy  and  service.  "By 
this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples, 
if  ye  have  love  one  to  another."  ^  This  way 
of  service  has  come  to  be  a  self-evident  Christian 
duty.  Never  before  was  there  so  clear  a  recog- 
nition of  the  social  responsibility  of  Christian  be- 
lievers; never  was  there  such  multiplication  of 
philanthropic  agencies  in  the  name  of  Christianity, 
or  such  general  agreement  that  the  test  of  religion 
in  the  present  age  must  be  its  capacity  to  inspire 
deeds  of  love.    In  1849  Pastor  Wichern,  the  founder 

nism  is  suggested.  Of  such  an  institution  the  book  of  Acts  speaks 
not  a  word;  "  but  going  on  to  suggest  that  (s.  49),  "The  picture 
offered  by  the  book  of  Acts  of  communism  in  Jerusalem  represents 
the  social  ideal  of  the  author,  described  as  realized  in  the  sacred 
days  of  the  beginnings  of  Christianity ; "  a  view  which  Rogge 
(s.  69)  regards  as  "a  complete  contradiction  of  the  method  in 
which  the  author  of  the  third  gospel  and  the  book  of  Acts  else- 
where deals  with  his  sources."  Even  a  critic  of  avowed  sympathy 
with  the  socialist  programme,  like  O.  Holtzmann,  "  Jesus  Christus 
und  das  Gemeinschaftsleben  der  Menschen,"  1893,  candidly  re- 
marks :  **  What  the  book  of  Acts  describes  is  free  offerings  of 
Christian  brotherhood ;  ...  of  industry  in  common,  of  the  estimat- 
ing of  each  individual  according  to  his  work,  of  any  levelling  of 
possessions  or  of  labor,  there  is  not  a  sign.  No  likeness  is  to  be 
found  between  the  conditions  of  the  first  Christian  community  and 
the  programme  proposed  by  socialism."  Compare  also :  G.  Adler, 
"  Geschichte  des  Sozialismus  und  Communismus  von  Plato  bis  zur 
Gegenwart,"  Erster  Teil,  1899,  s.  69  ff. ;  Stein,  "Die  soziale  Frage 
im  Lichte  der  Philosophic,"  s.  232  ff. ;  "  Das  Urchristentum  und  die 
soziale  Frage." 
1  John  xiii.  35. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    29 

of  the  Innere  Mission  in  Germany,  addressed  his 
Letter  to  the  Nation,  urging  Christian  believers  to 
enter  ''into  the  ferment  and  questioning  of  the  time, 
.  .  .  and  give  the  only  indisputable  proof  that  Chris- 
tianity .  .  .  can  accomplish  what  is  possible  to 
no  power  or  wisdom  without  the  gospel ;  "  ^  and 
this  proving  of  Christian  faith  by  Christian  works 
has  become  the  special  mark  of  modern  Christian- 
ity. A  hundred  ways  of  service,  visitation,  and 
relief,  the  advocacy  of  temperance  and  of  recrea- 
tion, the  provision  of  the  social  settlement  and  of 
the  institutional  church,  illustrate  the  expansioii 
of  the  work  of  religion  into  the  sphere  of  the  social 
movement.  Yet  these  Christian  activities,  beauti- 
ful and  fruitful  as  they  are,  and  testifying  as  they 
do  to  the  vitality  of  the  Christian  religion,  cannot 
be  regarded  as  presenting  in  themselves  a  solution 
of  the  modern  social  question.  This  question,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  cuts  quite  beneath  the  whole 
problem  of  philanthropy,  and  cannot  be  summed 
up  in  terms  of  pity  for  the  unfortunate  or  of  alms- 
giving for  the  poor.  It  inquires  for  the  causes  of 
ill  fortune,  and  demands  justice  for  the  poor.  It, 
applies  itself  to  changing  the  conditions  which  make 
people  poor,  rather  than  to  pitying  the  poverty  which 
evil  conditions  have  made.      However  legitimate 

1  Wichern,  "  Die  innere  Mission  der  deutschen  evangelischen 
Kirche,"  3.  Aufl.,  1889;  Gohre,  "Die  evangelisch-soziale  Bewe- 
gung,"  1896,  s.  3ff. ;  Schafer,  "Leitfaden  der  iimeren  Mission," 
1889,  s.  52 ff. ;  Uhlhorn,  "Die  christliche  Liebesthatigkeit  seit  der 
Reformation,"  1890,  s.  347  ff. 


30      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

and  beneficent,  then,  the  progress  of  Christian  sym- 
pathy and  charity  may  be,  it  does  not  satisfy  the 
demand  of  the  time.  It  is  the  work  of  a  practising 
physician,  dealing  with  special  cases  of  disease,  while 
beneath  his  mitigation  of  results  lie  profounder 
inquiries  concerning  the  causes  and  prevention  of 
disease.  To  meet  the  social  question  as  it  now  pre- 
sents itself,  religion  must  be  more  than  merciful 
and  generous ;  it  must  find  a  place  for  itself  in  that 
search  for  better  economic  conditions  and  better 
social  organization  which  absorbs  the  attention  of 
the  present  time. 

Here,  then,  we  come  upon  many  schemes  and 
dreams  which,  in  the  name  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, concern  themselves  directly  with  the  disorder 
and  incompleteness  of  the  industrial  world.  They 
may  be  roughly  classified  in  a  few  general  types. 
First,  and  on  the  outskirts  of  these  definite  propo- 
sitions and  programmes,  there  is  what  may  be 
called  the  work  of  prophecy.  The  prophet,  in 
the  social  question,  as  in  religion,  is  not  the  sys- 
/  '*'  tem-maker,  or  even  the  foreteller  of  the  future. 
He  is  the  advocate  of  righteousness ;  he  lays  bare 
the  sins  of  his  people,  and  pronounces  judgment  on 
J^  ;  their  transgression ;  he  pictures  the  rule  of  equity 

I  and  peace,  and  promises  to  justice  its  reward.  Here 
i  is  at  least  one  legitimate  work  of  the  Christian 
preacher.  It  does  not  need  a  training  in  political 
economy  to  make  one  sensitive  to  social  sins.  The 
same  passion  for  righteousness  which  made  the 
burden  of  Hebrew  prophecy  finds  its  place  in  an 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING         3 1 

effective  Christian  ministry  to-day.  The  prophet 
may  not  know  precisely  what  form  the  better  future 
is  to  assume ;  and  when  he  depicts  the  details  of 
that  future,  he  may  become  only  an  impracticable 
visionary.  His  place  is  to  proclaim  the  eternal 
law  of  righteousness  and  the  retribution  which, 
for  a  nation  as  for  an  individual,  is  sure  to  follow 
wrong.  "  The  prophet  that  hath  a  dream,"  he 
says.  "Is  not  my  word  like  as  fire  ?  saith  the 
Lord ;  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock 
in  pieces  ?  "  ^  "  Behold,  I  am  against  them  that 
prophesy  lying  dreams,  saith  the  Lord;  ...  I 
will  cast  you  off,  and  the  city  that  I  gave  unto 
you;  "2  and  again,  of  the  faithful  he  says,  "I  will 
give  them  an  heart  to  know  me,  that  I  am  the 
Lord :  and  they  shall  be  my  people."  "  I  will  set 
mine  eyes  upon  them  for  good,  and  I  will  bring 
them  again  to  this  land."  ^ 

Among  such  prophets  of  the  modern  social 
question,  two  have  had  extraordinary  influence  on 
the  consciences  of  Christians.*    Carlyle  attacked 

1  Jer.  xxiii.  28,  29.  ^  jgr.  xxiii.  32,  39.  '  Jer.  xxiv.  7,  6. 

*  Of  Carlyle's  own  writings  the  most  significant  are :  *'  Chartism," 
1840;  "Past  and  Present,"  1843;  «  Latter  Day  Pamphlets,"  1880. 
See  also :  Schulze-Gavernitz,  "  Zum  sozialen  Frieden,"  1890,  I,  ss. 
77-290;  "Thomas  Carlyle  als  Sozialtheoretiker  und  Sozialpoli- 
tiker";  Garnett, " Life  of  Thomas  Carlyle"  (with  bibliography); 
Gibbins,  "English  Social  Reformers,"  1892,  p.  181  ff.  ;  and  the 
unsparing  criticism  of  Robertson,  "Modern  Humanists,"  1891, 
p.  II  ff.  Of  Ruskin  the  most  significant  writings  are:  "Unto  this 
Last,"  1862;  "Crown  of  Wild  Olive,"  1866;  "Time  and  Tide," 
1867;  "  Fors  Clavigera  "  {passim).  See  also  the  warm  advocacy  of 
J.  A.  Hobson,  "John  Ruskin,  Social  Reformer,"  1898;  the  critical 


32      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

with  splendid  satire  the  mammonism  and  dilettant- 
ism of  modern  life,  and  pictured  a  revival  of  the 
ancient  ways  of  social  stability  and  peace ;  Ruskin 
arraigned  the  prevailing  political  economy  as  un- 
real and  illusory,  and  substituted  for  it,  in  what  he 
held  was  his  most  important  work,  a  political 
economy  whose  roots  should  be  honor,  and  whose 
veins  of  wealth  should  be  "the  purple  veins  of 
happy-hearted  human  creatures."  Both  of  these 
great  teachers  were  of  the  prophetic  order.  No 
one  can  read  their  arraignment  of  social  unright- 
eousness without  a  glow  of  sympathy  and  of  self- 
reproach.  To  many  a  mind,  sunk  in  an  Egyptian 
self-content  of  commercialism,  the  summons  of 
Carlyle  has  been  as  if  a  new  Moses  were  calling 
his  people  into  the  sterner  region  of  the  moral  ideal ; 
to  many  a  mind  which  has  been  stupefied  by  the 
ugliness  and  squalor  of  modern  civilization,  Ruskin 
has  restored  the  hope  of  beauty  and  peace.  Instead 
of  an  England  of  cruel  traders  and  chattering  politi- 
cians, Carlyle  conceives  an  England  of  heroes  and 
captains  of  industry,  fit  to  lead  a  holy  war.  Instead 
of  wealth  which  sinks  a  man,  as  a  belt  of  gold  pieces 
would  sink  him  in  the  sea,  Ruskin  calls  for  a  nev/ 
definition  of  riches.  The  only  wealth  is  life ;  all 
else  is  not  wealth,  but  *'ill-th."  "  I  can  even  imag- 
ine that  England  may  cast  all  thoughts  of  posses- 
sive wealth  back  to  the  barbaric  nations  among 

estimate  of  F.  J.  Stimson,  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  1888; 
and  the  less  sympathetic  treatment  of  Robertson  («/  supra),  p. 
l84flf.;  and  of  Politicus,  "New  Social  Teachings,"  1886,  Ch.  I.  and  II. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF  THE   TEACHING         33 

whom  they  first  arose,  —  and  be  able  to  lead  forth 
her  sons,  saying,  *  These  are  my  jewels.'  "  ^ 

Yet  these  teachers  of  duty  and  of  beauty, 
when  they  abandon  the  path  of  spiritual  inspira- 
tion, and  undertake  that  of  economic  instruction, 
warn  us  of  the  limits  of  the  prophetic  office. 
Carlyle  proposes  a  reversion  of  industrial  life 
from  liberty  of  contract  to  the  bondage  of  feu- 
dalism. "  I  am  for  permanence  in  all  things." 
"Gurth,  the  serf  of  Cedric,  with  a  brass  collar  round 
his  neck,  is  not  what  I  call  an  exemplar  of  human 
felicity,  but  Gurth  to  me  seems  happy  in  compari- 
son with  many  a  man  of  these  days,  not  born  thrall 
of  anybody."  "  Liberty  when  it  becomes  the  lib- 
erty to  die  by  starvation  is  not  so  divine."  ^  Rus- 
kin  proposes  a  principle  of  exchange  which  shall 
abolish  all  distinctions  of  ability  or  fidelity,  and 
which  assumes  an  equality  of  service,  the  possibility 
of  which  Ruskin  himself  denies.^  Nothing,  indeed, 
is  more  curious  in  literary  history  than  the  place 
which  both  Carlyle  and  Ruskin  have  come  at  last 
to  occupy  in  the  history  of  social  reform.  Both 
were  completely  opposed  to  the  democratic  tend- 
ency of  modern  politics  and  industry.  Both  were 
at  heart  aristocrats  and  reactionaries.  Neither  had 
any  fundamental  sympathy  with  the  socialist  pro- 

1  "  Unto  this  Last,"  Essay  II,  Conclusion. 

2  «  Past  and  Present,"  Book  III,  Ch.  XIII. 

«  Compare,  "  Unto  this  Last,"  Essay  III,  with  "  Fors  Clavigera," 
Letter  V:  "No  liberty,  but  instant  obedience  to  known  law  and 
appointed  persons;  no  equality,  but  recognition  of  every  betterness 
and  reprobation  of  every  vvorseness." 
D 


34      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION     ' 

gramme.  Both  stood  for  authority,  order,  obedi- 
ence. Ruskin  speaks  of  himself  as  an  "old  Tory" 
and  as  an  "Illiberal."^  Carlyle  pours  contempt 
on  the  antislavery  agitation  of  a  "  long-sounding, 
long-eared  Exeter  Hall."^  Both  found  in  mediae- 
valism  an  escape  from  modern  social  ills.  Carlyle 
would  heal  the  economic  evils  of  the  nineteenth 
century  by  a  reversion  to  feudalism  ;  Ruskin  would 
redeem  the  ugliness  of  modern  civilization  by  a  re- 
vival of  primitive  simplicity.  Both  distrusted  the 
spirit  of  democracy  and  the  rule  of  the  majority. 
**  I  hate  your  Clutterbuck  republics,"  said  Carlyle, 
of  the  United  States ;  and  Ruskin,  in  his  splendid 
rhetoric,  coincides  in  this  view :  "  This  I  say,  be- 
cause the  Americans  as  a  nation  set  their  trust  in 
liberty  and  in  equality,  of  which  I  detest  the  one 
and  deny  the  possibility  of  the  other ;  and  because, 
also,  as  a  nation,  they  are  wholly  undesirous  of 
rest,  and  incapable  of  it ;  irreverent  of  themselves 
both  in  the  present  and  in  the  future ;  discontented 
with  what  they  are,  having  no  ideal  of  anything 
which  they  desire  to  become,  as  the  tide  of  the 
troubled  sea  when  it  cannot  rest."  ^  Yet,  by  a 
strange  perversion  of  the  main  intention  of  Carlyle 
and  Ruskin,  their  prophetic  denunciations  have 
outlived  their  positive  teachings;  their  invectives 
against  the  world  as  it  is  have  been  heard,  while 
their  pictures  of  the  world  as  it  ought  to  be  have 

1  Hobson,  p.  203. 

2  "  Past  and  Present,"  Book  IX,  Ch.  V. 
»  "Time  and  Tide,"  p.  152. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING         35 

been  forgotten.  Carlyle's  "  Past "  would  be  abso- 
lutely intolerable  to  the  radical  reformers  who  still 
deUght  in  his  arraignment  of  the  "  Present."  Rus- 
kin's  "Unto  this  Last,"  in  its  economic  doctrine, 
may  be  so  impracticable  as  to  justify  the  jest  that 
its  title  should  be  "  Beyond  his  Last,"  but  the  vis- 
ionary quality  of  Ruskin's  economics  does  not 
diminish  the  effectiveness  of  his  splendid  satire  or 
of  his  moral  exhortation.  The  prophetic  quality 
in  both  these  literary  masters  outlives  their  advo- 
cacy of  feudal  authority,  and  both  have  been  swept 
into  the  movement  of  radical  socialism  from  which 
they  would  have  instinctively  recoiled,  and  find 
themselves  at  last  cited  as  leading  authorities  in 
the  text-books  of  social  revolution.^  Few  lessons 
are  of  more  importance  for  teachers  of  righteous- 
ness to  learn  than  the  natural  limitations  of  the 
prophetic  office  which  even  these  distinguished 
cases  illustrate,  and  which  are  much  more  obvious 
in  less  gifted  men.  Many  a  Christian  preacher, 
stirred  by  the  recognition  of  social  wrong,  —  and 
not  infrequently  by  the  burning  message  of  Carlyle 
or  of  Ruskin,  —  is  called  to  be  a  prophetic  voice, 
crying  in  the  wilderness  of  the  social  question; 
but  many  a  prophet  mistakes  his  office  for  that 
of  the  economist,  and  gives  a  passionate  devo- 
tion to  industrial  programmes  which  are  sure  to 
fail.  Neither  ethical  passion  nor  rhetorical  genius 
equip  a  preacher  for  economic  judgments.     It  is 

1  E.g.  Morris,  "  Art  and  Socialism,"  1884,  appendix,  with  passages 
from  Carlyle  and  Ruskin. 


36      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

for  the  prophet  of  righteousness  to  exhort  and 
warn,  rather  than  to  administer  and  organize.  A 
different  temper  and  training  are  required  for 
wisdom  in  industrial  affairs. 

Reasonable,  however,  as  such  criticism  may  be 
concerning  the  function  of  prophecy,  it  does  not  fix 
a  limit  for  Christian  thought  concerning  the  social 
question.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  happen  that 
those  who  desire  to  apply  the  religious  motive  to 
social  life  shall  frankly  dismiss  the  function  of 
prophecy,  and  enter,  like  other  people,  into  the  re- 
gion of  economic  discussion  and  research.  While  it 
is  true  that  there  is  nothing  in  Christian  piety  which 
of  itself  fits  one  for  social  wisdom,  it  is  certainly 
not  true  that  there  is  anything  in  such  a  sentiment 
which  disqualifies  one  from  prudent  and  patient 
inquiry  or  from  intelligent  decision.  Beyond  the 
position  of  the  prophet,  therefore,  lie  various  phases 
of  direct  and  practical  service  through  which  it  is 
proposed  to  utilize  religion  as  a  social  force,  and  to 
give  it  a  definite  place  in  economic  life. 

,  The  most  usual  and  the  most  moderate  type  of 
the  social  utilization  of  religion  is  in  what  may 
be  called  —  if  the  title  may  be  used  as  one  of 
appreciation  and  honor  — the  method  of  Christian 
opportunism.  The  opportunist  is  not  necessarily  a 
time-server;  he  may  be  simply  a  reformer  who 
uses  each  opportunity  as  it  arrives.  The  opportunist 
has  no  definite  or  final  programme,  but  is  ready  to 
use  any  means  which  for  the  moment  appears  prac- 
ticable.   He  feels  his  way  through  what  is  immedi- 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING         37 

ately  possible  toward  the  end  which  he  desires. 
This  is  the  frame  of  mind  of  the  great  majority  of 
those  who  are  attempting  to  apply  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  to  the  social  question.  The  "  Social 
Congresses  "  of  Catholics  and  Protestants  held  each 
year  in  European  countries,  urge  on  their  adherents, 
not  specific  enterprises  in  the  name  of  religion, 
but  observation,  research,  and  readiness  to  apply 
the  motives  of  religion  to  social  life  wherever  the 
way  may  open.  *  They  represent  an  alert,  awak- 
ened, opportunist  spirit,  stirring  great  communions 
of  Christians,  —  a  spirit  which  is  often  led  by  new 
circumstances  into  quite  unanticipated  ways  of 
usefulness.^  Of  this  direction  of  the  Christian  im- 
pulse into  unforeseen  channels  one  of  the  most 
notable  illustrations  is  to  be  found  in  the  devoted 
service  of  Maurice  and  his  friends  in  England.^ 

1  "  Verhandlungen  des  Evang.-soz.  Kongresses,"  I-XI,  1890- 
1900;  L.  Gregoire  (pseudonym),  "Le  Pape,  les  Catholiques  et  la 
question  sociale,"  1895  (P*  3^3>  'Programme  du  Congr^s  Catholique 
de  Cologne,"  1894). 

2  The  story  of  the  Maurice-Kingsley  movement  is  delightfully 
told  in  the  "  Life  of  Frederic  Denison  Maurice,  Chiefly  in  his  Own 
Letters,"  4th  ed.,  1885,  especially  Vol.  II,  Ch.  I  (a  bibliography  is 
prefixed  to  Vol.  I);  and  in  Brentano,  "Die  christlich-soziale  Bewe- 
gung  in  England,"  1883  (with  bibliography).  Of  Maurice's  own 
writings,  the  most  significant  are :  "  Dialogue  between  Somebody  (a 
person  of  respectability)  and  Nobody  (the  author),"  1890;  "Rea- 
sons for  Cooperation,"  1891;  and  of  Kingsley:  "Message  of  the 
Church  to  Laboring  Men,"  1891;  "Alton  Locke,"  1880;  "Yeast,  ' 
1891  ;  "Literary  and  General  Lectures,"  1880.  See  also  Kauf- 
mann,  "Christian  Socialism,"  1888,  p.  57  ff.  The  true  relation  of 
Kingsley  to  Maurice  is  recorded  in  a  conversation  reported  by  E. 
Yarnall,  "Reminiscences,"  1899,  p.  190 :  "  'I  owe  all  that  I  am  to 


38      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

The  only  economic  principle  which  seemed  at  first 
clear  to  these  brave  men  was  their  conviction  of  the 
unchristian  character  of  the  prevailing  economic 
system.  It  was,  as  Kingsley  said,  a  "  narrow,  con- 
ceited, hypocritical,  anarchic,  and  atheistic  view  of 
the  universe."  Of  positive  teaching  they  had  little 
to  offer.  **  I  do  not  see  my  way,"  said  Maurice, 
"  farther  than  this :  Competition  is  put  forth  as 
the  law  of  the  universe  ;  that  is  a  lie."  Thus,  the 
original  position  of  this  group  was  one  of  expect- 
ant opportunism.  By  a  fortunate  coincidence,  how- 
ever, the  English  cooperative  movement  —  devised, 
as  must  always  be  proudly  remembered,  by  the 
humblest  of  hand-workers,  without  the  counsel  of 
the  learned  —  was  just  beginning  its  history  of  ex- 
traordinary expansion,  and  in  the  spirit  of  this  in- 
dustrial enterprise  Maurice  found  an  expression 
for  his  social  Christianity.  "Competition,"  said 
Kingsley,  "  means  death ;  cooperation  means  life." 
The  English  opportunists  gave  the  strength  of  their 
leadership  to  the  cooperative  movement,  and  found 
satisfaction  for  their  Christian  socialism  in  a  prac- 
tical scheme  which  they  themselves  had  not  devised. 
Sympathetic  opportunism,  however,  does  not 
exhaust  the  resources  of  Christian  thought  con- 
cerning the  social  question.  Beyond  the  readi- 
ness to  use  whatever  way  of  service  may  offer 
itself  lie  many  deliberate  attempts  to  give  to  the 
social  question  a  systematic  interpretation  in  terms 

Maurice,'  said  Kingsley.     •  I  aim  only  to  teach  to  others  what  I  get 
from  him.'     •  I  live  to  interpret  him  to  the  people  of  England.' " 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING         39 

of  Christianity.  They  may  proceed  either  by 
denying  the  extreme  revolutionary  doctrine,  or  by 
accepting  it;  in  either  case  there  is  a  distinct 
meeting  of  the  economic  issue  and  a  definite  inter- 
vention, in  the  name  of  religion,  in  the  affairs  of 
the  industrial  life.  On  the  one  hand  is  what  may  ^  i  r'l 
be  called  the  scientific  reaction,  —  the  renewed 
examination,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  facts  which 
create  the  social  question,  and  the  interpretation 
of  them  as  facts  of  the  moral  and  personal  life 
rather  than  of  the  economic  and  social  order.  Of 
this  direction  of  research  an  important  illustration 
may  be  recalled  in  the  work  of  the  French  engineer, 
Le  Play.^  This  distinguished  inquirer  was  not 
only  of  the  first  rank  in  his  scientific  calling,  but 
was  also  a  devout  Catholic.  No  sooner  had  the 
storm  of  revolution  in  France  spent  its  force  than 
Le  Play  applied  to  the  facts  of  social  disorder  the 
same  scientific  examination  which  he  had  already 
given  to  the  geology  of  Europe.     With  amazing 

^Lc  Play,  "Les  Ouvriers  Europeens,"  2e  ed.,  1879;  "La  Re- 
forme  Sociale,"  3  vols.,  1872;  C.  de  Ribbe,  "Le  Play  d'apr^s  sa 
correspondance,"  1884;  Curzon,  "  Frederic  le  Play,  sa  methode,  sa 
doctrine,  son  ceuvre,  son  esprit,"  1899  ;  Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco- 
nomics, IV,  408,  H.  Higgs  (and  Appendix) ;  "  La  Reforme  Sociale, 
Bulletin  des  Unions  de  la  Paix  Sociale,  fondee  par  F.  le  Play."  The 
Musee  Social,  founded  in  1895  ^X  ^^^  Comte  de  Chambrun,  and 
occupying  his  palace,  5  Rue  las  Casas,  Paris,  perpetuates  in  its 
library  and  its  varied  investigations  the  methods  of  Le  Play.  See 
Bodicker,  "  Le  Comte  de  Chambrun  et  le  Musee  Social,  Paris," 
1896;  "Statuts  du  Musee  Social,"  1896;  "  Chronique  du  Musee 
Social,  Paris,"  Arthur  Rousseau,  14  Rue  Soufflot.  See  also  C. 
Jannet,  "  Le  Socialisme  d'etat  et  la  reforme  sociale,"  2e  ed.,  189a 


40      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

industry  and  unprecedented  range  of  observation 
he  studied  the  conditions  of  domestic  and  indus- 
trial life,  in  many  countries  and  under  many 
phases  of  civilization,  and  tabulated  in  minute 
detail  the  budget  of  income  and  expenditure  which 
represented  the  economic  condition  of  typical  lives. 
His  results  were  in  undisguised  opposition  to  the 
revolutionary  dogmas  which  had  already  become 
conspicuous  in  France.  The  social  question,  he 
concluded,  was  not  fundamentally  one  of  economic 
transformation  or  of  the  abolition  of  privileges,  but 
one  of  domestic  integrity,  industrial  thrift,  moral 
education,  and  living  religion.  The  issue  was 
ethical  rather  than  economic  ;  the  security  of  a 
country  like  France  was  to  lie  in  the  vitality  of  its 
family  stocks,  in  greater  prudence  in  expenditure, 
in  productive  skill,  and  in  faith  in  the  moral  order 
of  the  world.  The  scientific  liberalism  of  Le  Play 
gained  at  once  large  hearing.  It  approved  itself 
to  the  instinctive  conservatism  of  the  Church,  and 
it  has  been  perpetuated,  with  much  statistical  and 
historical  learning,  by  many  distinguished  disciples. 
Yet  even  in  France,  and  within  the  Catholic 
Church  itself,  this  reactionary  opposition  to  the 
collectivist  creed  has  of  late  given  way  to  a  more 
sympathetic  view.  Whatever  may  be  said  of 
domestic  virtues  and  moral  education,  there  has 
seemed  to  many  Christians  no  possibility  of  defin- 
ing the  social  question  in  these  terms  alone.  The 
specific  problem  of  industrial  change,  it  has  been 
felt,  must  be  met,  and  met   in  the   name  of   the 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING   4 1 

Christian  Church.  The  Church  must  have  a  social 
programme ;  there  must  be  a  Christian  doctrine 
of  economics ;  the  revolutionary  social  movement 
must  be  tempered  and  deepened  by  the  spirit  of 
Christian  faith.  These  are  the  convictions  which 
have  expressed  themselves  in  the  general  type  of 
thought  known  as  Christian  socialism,  and  which 
have  united,  in  unanticipated  fellowship,  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  Germans  and  Frenchmen,  conserv- 
ative ecclesiastics  and  radical  preachers. 

The  first  determined  note  of  this  new  Chris- 
tian programme  was  struck  in  Germany;  not, 
as  might  be  anticipated,  by  a  Protestant  reformer, 
but  by  a  Catholic  prelate.  Several  reasons  may 
be  suggested  for  this  interesting  historical  fact. 
The  Catholic  Church  has  maintained  throughout 
its  history  a  continuous  tradition  of  organic  re- 
sponsibility, and  in  this  respect  was  peculiarly 
prepared  to  receive  and  interpret  the  conception 
of  industrial  unity  which  marks  the  modern  social 
question.  The  Catholic  Church,  moreover,  was  in 
Germany  the  party  of  protest ;  and  its  exclusion 
from  political  control  gave  it  a  freer  hand  for 
social  agitation  than  was  permitted  to  an  Estab- 
lished Church.  Even  before  the  revolution  of  1848, 
the  French   Abb^  Lamennais^  had  announced  a 

iNitti,  "Catholic  Socialism,"  p.  99  ff.;  Nathusius,  "Die  Mitar- 
beit  der  Kirche  an  der  Losung  der  sozialen  Frage,"  1897,  s.  121 ; 
Kaufmann, "Christian  Socialism,"  1888,  p.  35  ff.;  Mazzini's  "Essays" 
(Camelot  edition,  1887),  p.  73:  "Wherefore,  thought  Lamennais, 
—  the  mission  of  the  Peoples,  and  their  disposition  toward  order 
and  justice,  being  recognized  —  wherefore  should  the  Church  refuse 


42      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

new  mission  for  his  religion,  and  had  found  in 
the  alarming  watchwords,  "Liberty,  Fraternity, 
Equality,"  not  merely  the  signs  of  social  revolu- 
tion, but  the  summons  to  a  revival  of  Christianity. 
His  voice,  however,  was  of  one  crying  in  a  wilder- 
ness of  conservative  tradition,  and  his  teaching 
was  condemned  by  Gregory  XVI.  As  the  social 
question  grew  more  distinct  in  form  and  the  work- 
ing-people of  Germany  were  won  to  the  socialist 
cause,  the  Catholic  Church  renewed  its  sympa- 
thetic interest.  At  the  very  beginning  of  the  new 
period,  Lassalle,  always  more  of  an  idealist  than 
Marx,  had  proposed  his  scheme  of  working-men's 
productive  associations,  subsidized  by  the  State, 
—  a  scheme  at  first  welcomed  by  the  German 
Social  Democracy,  but  soon  supplanted  by  more 
comprehensive  plans  of  revolution.  Lassalle's  sug- 
gestion, however,  was  a  seed  which  took  root  in 
strange  soil.  Baron  von  Ketteler,^  Archbishop  of 
Mayence,  a  gallant  prince  of  the  Church,  found 
in  Lassalle's  proposal  the  suggestion  of  an  eco- 
nomic programme  for  the  Church  itself.  In  his 
notable  book,  "The  Labour  Question  and  Chris- 
tianity," he  accepted  the  principle,  and  often  the 
language,  of  the  socialist  scheme.  The  self-help 
proposed  by  the  Liberals  of  his  day  for  poverty 

to  regulate  their  movements,  to  preside  over  the  action  of  this  provid- 
ential instinct  of  the  multitudes?" 

1  Ketteler,  "  Die  Arbeiterfrage  und  das  Christentum,"  4.  Aufl., 
1890 ;  Girard,  "Ketteler  et  la  Question  Ouvri^re,"  1896;  Kauf- 
mann,  "Christian  Socialism,"  1888,  p.  loS ;  Rae,  "Contemporary 
Socialism,"  p.  224 ;  Nitti,  "  Catholic  Socialism,"  p.  100  flf. 


Comprehensiveness  of  the  teaching      43 

is,  to  von  Ketteler,  in  the  working-man's  present 
condition,  a  mere  mockery.  Associated  produc- 
tion, in  the  hands  of  the  working-class  itself,  is 
to  be  its  redemption  from  capitalism.  While 
Lassalle,  however,  had  turned  to  the  State  for 
the  endowment  of  such  productive  industry,  von 
Ketteler  turned  to  the  Church.  Let  Christians, 
he  proposed,  voluntarily  supply  the  means  for 
this  industrial  emancipation.  What  is  this,  in- 
deed, but  the  renewal  of  that  earlier  spirit  in 
which  monasteries  were  endowed  and  cathedrals 
built.?  The  new  age  calls  for  Christian  munifi- 
cence like  that  which  enriched  France  and  Eng- 
land with  the  splendors  of  Gothic  art.  "  May 
God  in  his  goodness  quickly  raise  up  men  who 
will  sow  the  fruitful  idea  of  the  association  of 
production  in  the  soil  of  Christianity." 

It  was  a  bold  and  noble  conception  of  the 
social  duty  of  a  living  Church,  and,  though  the 
conditions  of  Germany  were  unpropitious  and 
the  scheme  of  von  Ketteler  was  soon  lost  in 
larger  plans  of  revolutionary  socialism,  it  has  had  of 
late,  at  the  centre  of  Catholic  authority,  a  most 
interesting  revival.  No  sooner  had  the  social 
chaos  of  1 87 1  in  France  given  way  to  some  de- 
gree of  order,  than  a  group  of  Catholic  Legiti- 
mists set  themselves  to  the  reorganizing  of  labor 
under  the  principles  of  religion.  The  principal 
representative  of  the  French  Catholic  labor  party, 
the  soldierly  and  eloquent  Count  de  Mun,  found 
in  the  programme  of  industry  suggested  by  von 


44     JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Ketteler,  and  modified  by  the  later  German  Catho- 
lic Socialists,  a  key  to  the  situation.^  There  must 
be  revived  that  system  of  industry  which  the 
Middle  Ages  knew  as  guilds.  Economic  liberty 
is  a  modern  illusion ;  the  demand  of  the  socialist 
for  the  reconstruction  of  industry  under  common 
ownership  is  legitimate  and  inevitable;  but  that 
common  ownership  should  be  religious  in  spirit 
and  Catholic  in  administration.  Religion  must 
reorganize  the  old  order,  and  must  utilize  legis- 
lation to  that  end.  •  The  State  may  strengthen 
the  hands  of  the  Church,  but  it  is  the  Church 
which  must  reconstruct,  —  under  the  tutelage  of 
rehgion,  —  the  productive  associations  which  Las- 
salle  had  vainly  dreamed  could  be  maintained  by 
the  working-men  alone. 

Should  this  picturesque  revival  of  industrial 
feudalism,  it  may  be  asked,  be  a  compulsory 
system,  or  a  voluntary  organization  ?  The  Comte 
de  Mun  and  his  allies  urge  the  necessity  of  State 
authority  and  control ;  and  their  political  demands 
coincide  in  the  main  with  the  programme  of  the 
Social  Democratic  party.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  have  sprung  up  in  France  a  few  voluntary 
associations  which  actually  illustrate  the  practical 
direction  of  productive  industry  by  the  spirit  of 
religion.  Few  more  idyllic  scenes  are  to  be  wit- 
nessed in  the  modern  world  than  that  presented 

1  Nitti, "  Catholic  Socialism,"  p.  273  fF.,  p.  292  ff.,  with  further  refer- 
ences; Fortnightly  Review,  January,  1896,  "An  Object-lesson  in 
Christian  Democracy"  (Val-des-Bois). 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    45 

by  the  famous  factory  of  L^on  Harmel  at  Val-des- 
Bois,  —  a  contented,  secluded,  homogeneous  popu- 
lation, a  ''faniille  oiivrih'e^  a.  picture  of  what 
the  world  of  industry  might  be  if  only  all  working- 
people  were  French  Catholics,  and  all  employers 
were  as  devout  and  judicious  as  Harmel.  Mean- 
time the  Church  itself,  while  it  has  not  authorita- 
tively committed  itself  to  either  method  of  control, 
has  given  the  highest  approval  to  the  general  plan 
of  a  Catholic  organization  of  industry.  When  the 
present  Pope,  in  his  remarkable  Encyclical  of  May 
15,  1 89 1,  enumerated  the  direct  ways  of  economic 
rehef  which  commended  themselves  to  him,  he 
began  with  these  words  :  "  First  in  order  come  the 
guilds  of  arts  and  trades.  The  increasing  require- 
ments of  daily  life  render  it  necessary  that  these 
guilds  be  adapted  to  present  conditions."  Such 
suggestions,  carefully  guarded  though  they  are, 
indicate  the  profound  interest  which  has  been 
awakened  by  enterprises  like  that  of  Harmel,  and 
by  parliamentary  propositions  like  those  of  the 
Comte  de  Mun.  A  revival  of  guild  life  may 
indeed  be  impracticable  except  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  a  homogeneous  community ;  but  it  is  at 
least  one  way  of  direct  acceptance  by  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  the  economic  issue,  and  it  appears 
to  have  received  the  formal  commendation  of  that 
remarkable  man  who,  it  is  said,  desires  to  be 
remembered  as  the  Pope  of  the  working-classes.^ 

1  The  social  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  cannot  be 
inferred  from  the  view  of  Nitti's  "  Catholic  Socialism,"  1899.   Indeed, 


46      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

When  we  turn  to  the  parallel  development  of 
Christian  socialism  in  Protestant  Germany,  we  find, 
as  might  be  expected,  less  continuity  and  definite- 
ness  in  social  schemes,  though  not  less  determi- 
nation to  find  a  place  for  religion  in  the  social 
movement.  The  history  of  such  efforts  begins 
with  the  work  of  a  most  interesting,  though  now 
half-forgotten,  personality,  the  learned  and  devout 
Victor  Huber.^  This  diligent  scholar  had  become 
acquainted,  during  his  visits  in  England,  with  the 
work  of  Maurice,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had 
maintained  a  sympathetic  correspondence  with  von 
Ketteler.  Thus  he  was  in  some  degree  a  link, 
uniting  the  Christian  Socialist  movement  in  Great 
Britain   with   that   of    Catholic   Germany.     From 

one  of  the  most  curious  features  of  this  learned  book  is  the  reit- 
erated criticism  of  its  author  by  its  translator.  For  authorized  expo- 
sition of  Catholic  teaching  see:  Encyclical  of  May  15,  1891  (tr. 
Nitti,  p.  404  fF.);  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review^  July,  1891, 
(a  commentary  on  the  Encyclical  by  Bishop  Keane) ;  Forum,  Jan- 
uary, 1897,  De  Vogue,  "  Pope  Leo  XIII  ";  and  the  very  noteworthy 
book  of  Leon  Gregoire  (pseudonym),  "Le  Pape,  les  Catholiques, 
et  la  Question  Sociale,"  2e  ed.,  1895.  Of  a  more  general  nature  are : 
Soderini,  "  Socialism  and  Catholicism,"  with  a  preface  by  Cardinal 
Vaughan,  1896;  Winterstein, "  Die  christliche  Lehre  vom  Erdengut,'' 
1898;  see  also  J.  G.  Brooks,  International  Journal  of  Ethics, 
*'The  Social  Question  in  the  Catholic  Congresses";  and  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association,  1894,  "The  Papal  Encyclical  on  the 
Labor  Question." 

1  R.  Elvers,  "  V.  A.  Huber,  sein  Werden  und  Wirken,"  1879; 
Gohre,  "Die  evangelisch-soziale  Bewegung,"  1896,  s.  6  flf.  ;  Kauf- 
mann,  "  Christian  Socialism,"  1888,  p.  137.  See  also  the  references 
to  Huber  in  England,  in  Maurice,  "  Life  and  Letters,"  4th  ed.,  1885, 
Vol.  II,  p.  2  ff. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS    OF   THE   TEACHING        4/ 

the  one  he  derived  his  faith  in  industrial  coopera- 
tion, applying  the  principle  not  only  to  production 
and  consumption,  but  to  building  societies,  loan 
associations,  and  even,  under  the  title  of  "  Home 
Colonization,"  to  the  organization  of  German  vil- 
lage life ;  from  the  other  he  derived  a  confidence 
in  the  Christian  organization  of  industry,  which 
led  him  to  establish  his  "Associations  for  Chris- 
tian Order  and  Liberty."  Huber,  however,  was  a 
man  born  out  of  due  time;  he  was  politically  a 
Liberal  of  the  earlier  school,  equally  opposed  to 
the  governmental  paternalism  which  had  already 
begun  to  dominate  Germany,  and  to  the  revolu- 
tionary socialism  which  was  formulating  its  first 
programme.  There  was  no  natural  constituency 
for  his  scheme.  He  would  have  no  governmental^ 
aid  for  his  cooperative  societies,  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  would  he  deliver  them  over  to  the  Social 
Democracy.  He  put  his  confidence  in  private 
initiative  and  free  Christian  feeling.  He  had  seen, 
in  England,  a  few  Christian  scholars  devoted  to 
a  working-class  movement,  and  he  fancied  that 
there  might  be  in  Germany  a  similar  leadership. 
He  had  not  realized,  however,  the  violence  of  the 
working-class  reaction  in  Germany  from  all  alli- 
ance with  the  prosperous.  He  was  also,  it  is  said, 
by  temperament,  lacking  in  conciliatory  wisdom, 
and  had  something  of  that  isolation  of  spirit  which 
marks  what  the  Germans  call  an  *'  Einspdnner.'* 
His  career  was  one  of  disappointment;  he  with- 
drew from  the  academic  circles  of  Berlin  in  185 1, 


48      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

for  eighteen  years  lived  in  seclusion  among  the 
Harz  Mountains,  and  the  direct  results  of  his  gen- 
erous efforts  were  transient  and  meagre.  He  is 
to  be  remembered,  however,  as  the  fir^t  German 
Protestant  who,  in  the  name  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, proposed  a  definite  social  programme.  Chris- 
tian philanthropy,  he  maintained,  was  not  to  be 
satisfied  with  almsgiving  and  help  for  the  help- 
less, but  was  called  to  contribute  to  the  new 
industrial  issue  the  forces  of  organization  and  self- 
help.  The  social  climate  of  England  favored  the 
efforts  of  Maurice,  while  that  of  Germany  blighted 
the  plans  of  von  Ketteler  and  Huber,  and  the 
socialism  of  the  State  and  of  the  Revolution  left, 
between  them,  little  room  for  Christian  liberalism ; 
but  it  is  not  impossible  that,  when  the  full  effect 
of  prosperity  secured  by  legislation  comes  to  be 
observed  in  Germany,  there  may  be  a  renewal  of 
interest  in  enterprises  of  personal  and  spiritual 
initiative ;  and  if  that  time  arrives,  there  is  likely 
to  be  a  renewed  recognition  of  this  early  believer 
in  the  free  activity  of  a  living  Church. 

Much  more  in  accord  with  the  tumultuous  and 
shifting  character  of  the  modern  social  movement 
is  the  career  of  a  second  German  Protestant 
leader,  the  eloquent  and  masterful  Pastor  Stocker.^ 
For  twenty-five  years  this  brilliant  orator  has  been 

^A.  Stocker,  "  Christlich-soziale  Reden  und  Aufsatze,"  1885; 
Gohre,  "Die  evangelisch-soziale  Bewegung,"  1896,  s.  41  ff.;  Rae, 
"Contemporary  Socialism,"  1891,  p.  234;  Kaufmann,  "Christian 
Socialism,"  1888,  p.  159. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING   49 

among  the  most  conspicuous  and  the  most  criti- 
cised of  Germans.  Few  critics  would  question 
the  motives  of  his  intense  and  varied  activity,  but 
no  one  can  recall  the  changeful  policies  of  his 
stormy  life  without  a  pathetic  impression  of  wasted 
power.  As  early  as  1878,  being  then  Court 
Preacher  in  Berlin,  he  organized  his  "Christian 
Socialist  Labor  Party,"  "  on  the  basis  of  .  the 
Christian  faith,"  to  "lessen  the  division  between 
rich  and  poor,  and  to  bring  in  a  greater  economic 
security."  He  dismissed  the  Social  Democracy 
as  "  impracticable,  unchristian,  unpatriotic,"  and  set 
forth  a  Christian  programme  as  its  substitute.  It 
is  not,  he  says,  **  in  the  name  of  the  Church  that 
the  programme  is  proposed  ";  "  the  Church  is  not 
called  to  make  an  economic  programme."  His 
organization  was  not  to  be  one  of  the  clergy  to 
help  the  working-men,  but  one  of  the  working-men 
to  help  themselves.  It  was  impossible,  however, 
for  a  Court  Preacher,  with  a  mind  essentially  con- 
servative and  a  following  of  the  cultivated  class,  to 
command  the  genuine  confidence  of  German  hand- 
workers. Stacker's  original  ambition  was  thwarted 
also  by  legislation  introduced  by  the  government 
against  the  Socialists,  —  an  attack  which  only 
served  to  consolidate  their  forces  and  to  shut  out 
the  labor  party  of  Stocker  from  consideration. 
His  zeal  turned,  therefore,  to  a  new  and  less  noble 
crusade.  The  sympathy  which  was  coldly  received 
by  the  working-men  found  a  warmer  welcome  in 
the  ranks  of  tradespeople  of  the  humbler  type, 


50      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

whose  industrial  welfare  was  seriously  threatened 
by  an  extraordinary  increase  in  power  and  prosper- 
ity among  the  Jews.  The  social  interest  of  Stocker 
joined  with  his  orthodox  theology  in  converting 
his  original  Christian  socialism  into  anti-Semitism, 
and  he  became  much  more  widely  known  as  a  Jew- 
hater  than  as  a  working-man's  friend.  Finally,  in 
1895,  as  if  conscious  that  a  working-class  move- 
ment was  impossible,  Stocker  and  his  friends 
turned  to  a  more  comprehensive  but  more  con- 
servative scheme.  There  was  organized  at  Eisenach 
a  "  Christian  Social  Party,"  for  the  purpose  of  unit- 
ing "under  the  principles  of  Christianity  and 
patriotism  persons  of  all  classes  and  occupations 
who  are  moved  by  the  Christian  social  spirit." 
"  While  its  special  attention  is  to  be  given  to  the 
elevation  of  the  working-class  as  the  present  prob- 
lem of  the  time,  it  will  with  equal  gladness  serve 
the  needs  of  all  productive  interests  in  city  and 
country,  in  agriculture,  factory  life,  and  menial 
labor."  It  opposes  "all  unchristian  and  un-Ger- 
man  schemes  of  spurious  liberalism,  oppressive 
capitalism,  rapacious  Hebraism,  and  revolutionary 
socialism."  Thus  Stacker's  new  platform  com- 
bined in  one  programme  all  the  various  ends  for 
which  in  turn  he  had  already  contended.  It  has 
failed,  however,  of  wide  effect  through  its  compre- 
hensiveness, as  the  first  programme  failed  through 
its  limitations.  Supported  though  Stocker  has  been 
by  persons  of  importance,  the  distinction  between 
his  political  ideals  and  those  of  the  conservative 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING         5 1 

party  has  not  been  such  as  to  detach  votes,  while 
he  has  been  a  special  object  of  the  attack  against 
clerical  influence  in  politics.  The  legislation  of 
Bismarck  concerning  socialism  cut  the  ground 
from  under  Stocker's  feet,  and  in  1890  he  with- 
drew from  his  position  as  Court  Preacher.  He 
has  since  remained  a  striking  and  solitary  figure  in 
parliamentary  life,  regarded  by  many  persons  with 
hesitating  admiration  and  by  some  persons  with 
special  animosity ;  yet  he  is,  none  the  less,  to  be 
counted  as  the  most  eloquent  and  persistent  of 
German  Protestants  in  maintaining  that  social 
organization  is  an  essential  duty  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  the  modern  world. 

Genuine  and  devout,  then,  as  the  Christian 
socialism  of  German  Protestants  has  been,  it  can- 
not be  said  to  have  produced  a  definite  indus- 
trial programme,  or  to  have  had  a  profound  effect. 
It  has  found  itself  between  two  fires,  the  distrust 
of  the  government,  and  the  undisguised  contempt 
of  the  Social  Democracy.  On  the  one  hand,  it 
is  met  by  the  emperor's  dictum  that  the  clergy 
should  leave  politics  alone ;  on  the  other  hand,  it 
is  confronted  by  the  Socialist  belief  that  religion 
is  a  superstition  maintained  in  the  interest  of  the 
confiscating  class.  In  this  state  of  things,  the 
last  proposition  of  the  Protestant  Socialists  of 
Germany,  while  it  is  certainly  heroic,  would  seem 
to  be  Quixotic,  if  not  suicidal,  in  its  character. 
The  rebuke  of  the  emperor,  it  is  said  by  the 
eloquent  preacher  Naumann  and  his  friends,  is 


52      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

not  without  justification.  A  clergyman  in  a  Stat^ 
Church  may  not  hope  at  the  same  time  to  main- 
tain his  clerical  office  and  to  establish  a  friendly 
relation  with  the  working-class  movement.  Either 
his  freedom  of  speech  will  cost  him  his  place,  or 
he  will  address  property  holders  alone.  His  only 
escape  from  such  a  dilemma  is  to  abandon  the 
ministry  as  a  profession,  and,  in  the  name  of  a 
new  parliamentary  party,  to  throw  himself  into 
political  life.  Christian  socialism  must  be  re- 
garded as  a  political  alternative,  to  be  presented 
to  German  hand-workers  in  place  of  the  Social 
Democracy  which  now  commands  their  votes.  It 
accepts  the  economic  programme  of  the  Socialist, 
but  interprets  and  maintains  that  programme  as 
a  witness  of  the  Christian  religion.  Gallant  and 
self-sacrificing  as  this  programme  is,  it  cannot  be 
regarded  as  a  hopeful  phase  of  practical  effort. 
To  abandon  the  Church  for  the  sake  of  religion ; 
•to  see  in  politics  the  field  for  a  religious  revival ; 
to  ally  one's  self  with  the  Socialist  party  for  the 
sake  of  supplanting  them, — this  will  seem  to 
most  observers  like  the  charge  at  Balaklava, 
magnificent,  but  not  war;  and  the  withdrawal  of 
these  Christian  preachers  from  their  prophetic 
office  does  not,  at  present,  appear  likely  to  carry 
with  it  the  assurance  of  a  corresponding  influence 
and  leadership  in  the  political  world. 

It  is  not  essential  for  our  purpose  to  cite  further 
instances  of  the  Christian  protest  against  the  aliena- 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    53 

tion  of  the  social  question  from  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. By  many  ways  of  utterance,  by  attempted 
imitation  of  New  Testament  economics,  by  works 
of  philanthropy,  by  words  of  prophecy,  by  research, 
by  organization,  and  by  political  methods,  the  Chris- 
tian life  of  the  modern  world  has  maintained  its 
right  to  interpret  and  direct  the  social  agitations 
of  the  time.  When  one  recalls,  however,  all  these 
varied  expressions  of  Christian  responsibility,  he 
cannot  help  remarking  that  one  form  of  inquiry, 
which  would  seem  to  be  of  fundamental  importance, 
has  had  but  meagre  attention.  Behind  all  that  may 
be  urged  of  the  duty  of  the  Christian  Church,  and 
all  that  may  be  demanded  of  social  life  in  the  name 
of  Christianity,  there  lies,  for  all  followers  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  preliminary  question  concerning  his  per- 
sonal teaching.  What  did  Jesus  himself  have  to 
say  of  the  various  spheres  of  social  duty  ?  What  is 
the  social  doctrine  of  the  gospel  ?  By  the  answers 
to  such  questions  the  practical  conduct  of  a  loyal 
disciple  of  Jesus  must  be  largely  determined.  It 
is  most  surprising,  therefore,  that  in  a  period  of 
such  extraordinary  social  interest  on  the  part 
of  Christian  believers,  and  in  a  time  when  the 
watchword  "  Back  to  Christ ! "  has  become  so 
familiar,  there  should  have  been  undertaken  so 
few  systematic  or  scientific  inquiries  concerning 
the  nature  of  his  social  teaching.  Incidental 
treatment  of  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  problems 
of  social  life  may  be  found,  of  course,  in  the 
elaborate  studies  of  the  life  of  Christ,  of  which, 


54      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

since  the  days  of  Strauss  and  Renan,  there  has 
been  such  an  abundance;  and  chapters  also  in 
the  text-books  of  Christian  ethics ;  but  in  few  such 
instances  is  disclosed  any  appreciation  of  the  intense 
eagerness  with  which  the  present  age  desires  to 
learn  the  social  teaching  of  the  gospel.  The 
theological  and  philosophical  interest  of  the  life 
of  Jesus  has  for  the  most  part  quite  overshad- 
owed his  human  and  social  significance.  It  has 
seemed  more  important  to  determine  the  relation 
of  the  person  of  Christ  to  the  mystery  of  the 
Godhead  than  to  determine  his  attitude  toward 
the  secular  problems  of  the  modern  world.  In 
fact,  to  many  minds  the  personality  of  Jesus  bears 
so  wholly  a  superhuman  and  other-worldly  aspect 
that  there  appears  to  be  something  like  impiety  in 
discussing  his  social  doctrine  at  all.  It  is  a  strik- 
ing fact  that  the  creed  which  to  millions  sums  up 
the  essence  of  Christian  discipleship  devotes  its 
attention  so  exclusively  to  the  supernatural  aspects 
of  the  drama  of  redemption  that  it  makes  no  allu- 
sion whatever  to  any  incident  of  the  human  life  of 
Jesus ;  as  though,  for  the  essentials  of  a  Christian 
faith,  it  were  unimportant  to  recall  anything  that 
happened  between  the  miraculous  birth  and  the  suf- 
fering death  of  Christ.^  Even  so  profoundly  rever- 
ent and  appreciative  a  study  of  the  life  of  Jesus  as 
was  presented  in  the  epoch-making  book  known  as 

^See  the  striking  article  in  New  World,  June,  1899,  p.  299  flF., 
F.  A.  Christie,  "  The  Influence  of  the  Social  Question  on  the  Genesis 
of  Christianity." 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    55 

"  Ecce  Homo,"  was  regarded  by  many  of  its  earlier 
critics,  because  of  its  emphasis  on  the  human  and 
ethical  aspects  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  as  bringing  grave 
dishonor  on  his  nature  and  mission,  and  was  de- 
scribed by  the  excellent  Lord  Shaftesbury  as  "  the 
most  pestilential  book  that  has  ever  been  vomited 
forth  from  the  jaws  of  hell."  A  German  theologian 
of  the  highest  rank,  being  lately  asked  to  explain 
this  dearth  of  literature  concerning  the  relation  of 
Jesus  to  the  social  question,  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  it  was  the  risks  of  ecclesiastical  discipline 
which  had  driven  German  theologians  to  think  of 
safer  themes.^  It  would  probably  be  more  just  to 
refer  the  phenomenon  to  the  habits  of  isolation  and 
traditionalism  which  beset  the  theological  mind. 
The  interest  of  theological  studies  is  so  independ- 
ent of  the  shifting  issues  of  the  world,  and  tends 
so  often  to  detach  the  mind  from  the  passing 
incidents  of  social  life,  that  the  theologian  may 
find  himself  at  last  thinking  of  one  series  of  ques- 
tions while  the  world  about  him  is  interested  in 
quite  another  series,  and  there  may  come  to  be  I 
hardly  any  contact  between  his  professional  re-  I 
searches  and  the  human  needs  of  modern  life.  ^ 
This,  at  least,  is  the  impression  made  on  multitudes 
of  plain  minds  by  the  discussions  which  to  the  theo- 
logians appear   most  vitally  interesting.      These 

1  Compare,  however,  the  new  expression  of  responsibility  in 
"Verhandlungen  des  loten  Evang.-soz.  Kongresses,"  1899,  s.  12  ff., 
"  Das  Verhaltniss  der  lutherischen  Kirche  zur  sozialen  Frage,"  by 
Professor  Kaftan;  and  remarks  by  Professor  Harnack,  s.  32. 


56     JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 


subtle  distinctions  and  acrimonious  ecclesiastical 
differences  are  simply  without  interest  to  persons 
who  are  struggling  with  the  tragic  problems  of 
modern  poverty,  social  service,  and  political  moral- 
ity ;  and  to  such  persons  the  Christian  Church 
takes  on  a  look  of  unreality  and  misdirected 
energy,  as  though  it  were  concerning  itself  with 
little  more  than  what  Coleridge  called  the  problem 
of  "superhuman  ventriloquism,"  and  existed  only 
to  exercise  the  ingenuity  of  its  ministers  and 
occupy  the  leisure  of  its  adherents. 

Nor  is  this  all  that  is  likely  to  happen  when 
a  Christianity  of  dogma  is  confronted  by  an 
intensely  practical  and  ethical  age.  The  person 
of  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  soon  discovered,  cannot  be 
thus  excluded,  even  by  the  preoccupation  of  the 
theological  mind,  from  the  world  of  the  social 
question.  No  sooner  does  one  open  his  New 
Testament  than  he  finds  Jesus  teaching  of  social 
duty  with  the  same  authority  with  which  he  dis- 
courses of  Divine  love.  The  story  of  the  life  of 
Jesus  moves  through  a  world  of  human  relation- 
ships, and  he  scatters  on  either  side  of  his  path 
words  of  refreshing  and  deeds  of  blessing  for  the 
poor,  the  humble,  the  weary  and  the  heavy  laden, 
the  burdened  and  blind  and  sad.  His  gospel,  as 
he  expressly  says,  is  twofold,  and  one  half  of  it 
is  a  social  message,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself."  ^  What  wonder  is  it  then,  that, 
when  attention  is  recalled  to  the  neglected  aspect 

^  Matt.  xxii.  39. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    5/ 

of  the  person  of  Jesus,  this  unmetaphysical,  un- 
ecclesiastical,  human,  pitying  friend  of  man, — 
stooping  to  serve  the  lowly  and  quick  to  rebuke 
the  proud,  —  there  should  be  a  quick  swing  of  the 
pendulum  of  opinion,  and,  instead  of  the  Christ  of 
the  creeds,  there  should  seem  to  be  discovered  a 
new  Messiah,  the  Saviour  of  the  toiling  and  desti- 
tute masses  of  men  ?  What  was  the  young  man 
Jesus,  it  is  asked,  but  a  carpenter  at  his  bench  ? 
Who  were  his  companions  but  men  of  what  is  now 
called  the  proletariat  ?  What  words  were  oftener 
on  his  lips  than,  "Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich,"^ 
"Blessed  are  ye  poor"?^  What,  then,  is  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  when  it  is  stripped  of  the  theo- 
logical interpretations  which  have  obscured  it, 
but  the  gospel  of  a  working-man's  movement, 
the  language  of  a  social  agitator,  the  historical 
anticipation  of  tl^modern  programme  of  social 
democracy  ?  Hei^|Pthe  inevitable  reaction  from  a 
metaphysical  Christology.  The  new  time  recalls 
such  words  as  "  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God !  "  ^  "  Sell  all 
that  thou  hast,  and  distribute  unto  the  poor  "  ;  *  the 
attack  upon  the  property-holding  classes  is  forti- 
fied by  the  thought  of  Dives  in  hell  and  of  Laza- 
rus contented ;  and  instead  of  a  supernatural 
Christ,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  in 
another  world,  the  figure  which  wins  fresh  loyalty 
is  that  of  the  Carpenter,  the  poor  man's  Advocate, 

1  Luke  vi.  24.  *  Luke  xviii.  24. 

*  Luke  vi.  20,  *  Luke  xviii.  22. 


58      JE3US-  CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  greatest  of  socialists,  or,  as  he  has  been  lately 
called,  "Jesus  the  Demagogue."  ^ 

The  first  of  the  modern  biographers  of  Jesus  to 
emphasize  this  view  of  his  person  and  office  was 
A^_^^  Renan.2  It  was  a  part  of  his  general  modernization 
^ y  \(\j  \  of  the  gospel  to  picture  Jesus  as  having  kinship 
^^^^  I  with  the  modern  labor  agitator,  attacking  on  the 
one  hand  the  government  and  on  the  other  hand 
the  prosperous.  "Jesus,"  Renan  says,  "was  in 
one  view  an  anarchist ;  for  he  had  no  idea  of  civil 
government,  which  appeared  to  him  an  abuse  pure 
and  simple."  "Pure  Ebionism  —  that  is  to  say, 
the  doctrine  that  the  poor  (ebionim)  alone  can  be 
saved  .  .  .  was  accordingly  the  doctrine  of  Jesus." 
"  He  pardoned  the  rich  man  only  when  the  rich 
man,  because  of  some  prejudice,  was  disliked  by 
society."  "  He  openly  preferred  people  of  ques- 
tionable lives."  His  concepticu;  of  the  world  was 
"  socialist  with  a  Galilean  coloikj^.'*  "  A  vast  social 
revolution  in  which  rank  should  be  leveled  and 
all  authority  brought  low  was  his  dream."  The 
Jesus  of  Renan  was,  in  short,  a  forerunner  of  the 
modem  revolutionist,  limited  in  the  radicalism  of 
his  programme  by  the  conditions  of  his  social  envi- 
ronment ;  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  this  inter- 
pretation of  the  gospel  in  terms  of  the  modern 
social  question  has  appeared  to  many  socialist 
writers  the  final  word  of  New  Testament  criticism. 


//) 


1  Contemporary  Revinv^  March,  1896,  p.  427  ff.,  W.  Walsh, 
"  Jesus  the  Demagogue." 

2«'Life  of  Jesus,"  23d  ed.  (tr.  J.  H.  Allen,  1896),  pp.  170,  212, 
215,  171. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   O 


The  same  interpretation,  however,  may  be  util- 
ized, not  to  enforce  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  but  to 
condemn  it.  A  distinguished  English  philosopher, 
accepting  the  gospel  as  a  revolutionary  tract,  finds 
that  characteristic  not  a  reason  for  obeying  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  but  a  reason  for  rejecting  that 
teaching  as  impracticable  and  visionary.  To 
assume  that  Jesus  was  a  pious  anarchist,  is  to 
dismiss  his  gospel  as  inapplicable  to  modern 
life.^  The  Christian  theory  of  self-sacrifice  is,  it 
is  said,  self-destructive.  "  If  Christianity  is  to 
mean  the  taking  the  gospels  as  our  rule  of  life, 
then  we  none  of  us  are  Christians,  and,  no  matter 
what  we  say,  we  all  know  we  ought  not  to  be." 
"  There  is  not  one  of  our  great  moral  institutions 
which  it  [the  New  Testament]  does  not  ignore  or 
condemn.  The  rights  of  property  are  denied  or 
suspected,  the  ties  of  family  are  broken,  there  is  no 
longer  any  nation  or  patriotism.  .  .  .  The  morality 
of  the  primitive  Christians  is  homeless,  sexless,  and 
nationless."  "We  have  lived  a  long  time  now 
the  professors  of  a  creed  which  no  one  consistently 
can  practise,  and  which,  if  practised  would  be  as 
immoral  as  it  is  unreal." 

A  much  more  sober  and  cautious  approach  to 

"^  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  October,  1894,  F.  H.  Bradley, 
"The  Limits  of  Individual  and  National  Self-sacrifice."  So  also  L. 
Stein,  "Die  soziale  Frage  im  Lichte  der  Philosophie,"  1897,  s.  244, 
"  Christianity  is  stamped  with  an  ascetic  and  pessimistic  character." 
"  It  has  a  dark  and  monastic  quality  (etwas  monchisch  Finsteres), 
unfavorable  to  social  and  philosophical  inquiries  which  assume  a 
confidence  in  human  capacity." 


6o      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

the  social  teaching  of  Jesus  was  made,  somewhat 
before  the  picturesque  romanticism  of  Renan,  by  a 
now  largely  forgotten,  but  most  devoted  and  pains- 
taking, German  scholar,  who  anticipated  by  more 
than  thirty  years  the  importance  which  the  New 
Testament  would  have  in  the  social  movement. 
Rudolf  Todt  ^  was  an  undistinguished  pastor,  who 
was  stirred  by  a  passing  suggestion  of  the  more 
famous  Stocker  ^  to  examine  with  systematic  care 
the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  in  its  relation 
to  the  socialist  programme.  He  found,  as  he 
believed,  in  the  gospels,  not  only  general  princi- 
ples, but  "  positive  and  concrete  judgments  for  the 
solution  of  social  questions."  The  doctrine  of  the 
New  Testament  deals,  he  affirms,  **  with  the  prob- 
lem of  the  State,  the  rich  and  the  poor."  "Who- 
ever would  understand  the  social  question,"  he 
writes  on  his  first  page,  "  and  would  contribute  to 
its  solution,  must  have  on  his  right  hand  the  works 
of  political  economy,  on  his  left  those  of  scientific 
socialism,  and  before  him  must  keep  open  the  New 
Testament."  Todt  proceeds  to  set  forth  in  detail 
the  various  articles  of  the  socialist  creed,  and  con- 
fronts each  in  turn  with  the  teaching  of  the  New 

1  Todt,  "  Der  radikale  deutsche  Sozialismus  und  die  christliche 
Gesellschaft,"  2.  Aufl.,  1878;  "  Recapitulation  of  the  Social  Doctrine 
of  the  New  Testament,"  p.  396  fF.  See  also  Gohre,  "  Die  evange- 
lisch-soziale  Bewegung,"  s.  10  ff.;  and  compare  the  criticism  in 
Holtzmann  "  Die  ersten  Christen  und  die  soziale  Frage  "  (**  Wiss. 
Vortrage  iiber  rel.  Fragen,"  s.  21). 

'  In  the  Neue  evangelische  Kirchenzeitung  ioi  1873.  See  Todt, 
p.  I,  "  Die  P'rage  ging  mir  durch's  Herz." 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING        6 1 

Testament ;  and  concludes  that  "  with  the  excep- 
tion of  its  atheism  .  .  .  the  theory  of  sociaHsm  can- 
not be  opposed  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  gos- 
pel. Its  principles  not  only  conform  to  the  tests 
of  the  New  Testament,  but  contain  evangelical 
and  Divine  truths."  The  special  form  of  faith 
assumed  by  the  Social  Democracy  of  Germany, 
appeared  to  Todt  "  unevangelical  and  unneces- 
sary." Every  Christian  must  be  a  SociaHst,  but 
need  not  be  a  Social  Democrat.  Against  atheistic 
socialism,  therefore,  a  Christian  socialism  must  be 
organized.  Todt  thereupon,  with  Stocker  and  other 
friends,  began  the  organization  of  a  "  Central  Asso- 
ciation for  Social  Reform  on  Religious  and  Con- 
stitutional Principles,"  a  movement  which  through 
various  vicissitudes  and  transitions  has  been  per- 
petuated in  the  Evangelical  Social  Congress  and 
the  Christian  Socialist  party,  and  whose  vitality 
has  proceeded  in  very  large  degree  from  the  pains- 
taking study  of  the  gospels  with  which  it  began. 

Finally,  as  the  present  outcome  of  this  interpre- 
tation of  the  New  Testament,  we  reach  a  most 
stimulating  and  noble  personality,  whose  teaching 
reverts  with  special  emphasis  to  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  Jesus  Christ.  Pastor  Naumann  ^  of  Frank- 
fort was  one  of  the  few  genuine  orators  of  the 

1  Naumann,  "  Das  soziale  Programm  der  evangelischen  Kirche," 
1891;  "Was  heisst  Christlich-Sozial  ? "  1894,  s.  9  ff. ;  "Jesus  als 
Volksmann,"  Gottingen,  Arbeiterbibliothek  I,  I,  1896,  ss.  5,  13; 
"Soziale  Briefe  an  reiche  Leute,"  1899;  Gohre,  "Die  evange- 
lisch-soziale  Bewegung,"  1896,  s.  163  flf. 


62      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

German  pulpit,  and  through  all  his  preaching  runs 
a  strain  of  such  masculine  piety  that  his  enforced 
withdrawal  and  his  unpromising  ventures  in  politi- 
cal life  excite  most  natural  regret.  It  must  not 
be  supposed  that  Naumann  sees  in  Jesus  nothing 
more  than  a  social  reformer.  On  the  contrary,  he 
enters  profoundly  into  the  personal  relationships 
of  Christian  faith.  "Lord  Jesus,"  he  says,  "we 
would  sit  at  thy  feet  and  feel  what  Christianity 
really  is."  Jesus  Christ  is  "  neither  a  philosopher 
nor  statesman,  neither  physicist  nor  economist,  .  .  . 
he  brings  neither  conclusions  nor  methods.  He 
lives,  and  his  life  is  the  revelation  of  God."  Yet 
to  Naumann  the  social  question,  with  its  tragedies 
of  want  and  suffering,  is  so  overwhelmingly  absorb- 
ing that  he  dwells  with  constant  emphasis  on  the 
social  teaching  of  the  gospel.  "  Jesus  is,"  he  says, 
"  a  man  of  the  people  "  ;  his  talk  is  "  with  constant 
reiteration  of  the  rich  and  poor."  "  To  save  men's 
souls  he  is  the  enemy  of  wealth."  "Jesus  loves 
the  rich,  but  he  knows  that  their  souls  are  free  only 
when  they  are  ready  to  throw  their  wealth  away." 
He  is  "  on  moral  grounds  a  radical  enemy  of  capital." 
"What  are  to  be  the  tests  of  the  Last  Judgment.? 
Not  dogmas  or  confessions,  but  one's  relation  to 
human  need."  "An  age  which  does  not  feed  the 
hungry,  care  for  the  naked,  and  visit  the  sick  and 
the  prisoners  belongs  in  the  everlasting  fire." 
"  Christianity  is  to  help  the  poor."  To  these  pas- 
sionate utterances  of  Naumann  it  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  add  the  more  exaggerated  statements  of 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE   TEACHING        63 

Other  modern  students.  "  Christianity,"  says  the 
ItaHan  economist  Nitti,  "was  a  vast  economic  revo- 
lution more  than  anything  else."  "  Poverty  was  an 
indispensable  condition  for  gaining  admission  to  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  ^  With  still  less  self-restraint 
an  American  writer  advances  to  more  sweeping 
generalizations.  "The  Sermon  on  the  Mount," 
he  writes,  "  is  the  science  of  society.  It  is  a  trea- 
tise on  political  economy."  "The  rejection  of  his 
[Christ's]  social  ideal  was  the  crucifixion  he  carried 
in  his  heart."  "An  industrial  democracy  would  be 
the  social  actualization  of  Christianity.  It  is  the 
logic  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  ^  These  ex- 
travagances of  exegesis  indicate  how  sharply  the 
pendulum  of  interest  has  swung  from  a  Christol- 
ogy  which  ignored  the  social  question  to  one  which 
finds  the  social  question  the  centre  of  the  gospel. 

1  Nitti,  "Catholic  Socialism,"  1895,  pp.  58,  64. 

2  Herron,  "  The  New  Redemption,"  pp.  30,  34,  80 ;  compare 
p.  143,  "The  worst  charge  that  can  be  made  against  a  Christian  is 
that  he  attempts  to  justify  the  existing  social  order."  See  also  the 
Qther  writings  of  this  self-sacrificing  advocate  of  revolution,  e.g. : 
"  The  Larger  Christianity  ;  "  "  A  Plea  for  the  Gospel ;  "  "  Between 
Caesar  and  Jesus."  "  No  man  can  read  the  Gospel  himself  without 
seeing  that  Jesus  regarded  industrial  wealth  as  a  moral  fall  and  a 
social  violence."  "The  Church  as  a  whole  does  not  know  what 
Jesus  taught,  and  so  far  as  it  knows  does  not  beUeve  his  teaching 
practicable,"  "  Between  Caesar  and  Jesus,"  p.  107.  "  I  dread  noth- 
ing more  than  the  influence  upon  the  social  movement  of  existing 
organizations  of  religion,"  Boston  Address,  1895.  "If  we  would 
follow  Jesus  in  the  social  redemption,  it  will  be  by  storming  the 
citadel  of  monopoly."  "  We  can  only  save  the  people  from  being 
ground  to  profit  by  capturing  the  *  machine,' "  The  Industrialist^ 
July,  1899. 


64      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

Indeed,  as  has  been  lately  suggested,  it  would  not 
be  difficult,  under  these  principles  of  interpretation, 
to  re-edit  the  New  Testament  as  a  socialist  tract.^ 
Jesus  drove,  we  may  suppose,  the  swine  into  the 
sea  in  order  to  testify  his  indifference  to  the  insti- 
tution of  private  property.  When  meeting  the 
multitude  his  first  care  is  to  feed  them,  in  order  to 
indicate  the  precedence  of  economic  problems  over 
spiritual  questions.  He  scourges  the  money- 
changers from  the  temple  in  order  to  bear  public 
witness  against  capitalism  and  its  sins. 

However  unfounded  in  history  such  a  conception 
of  the  person  of  Christ  may  be,  it  is  welcomed  with 
enthusiasm  by  great  numbers  of  plain  people.  For 
the  Church  and  the  theologians,  the  modern  revolu- 
tionist has,  as  we  have  already  seen,  scant  respect. 
The  Church  is  to  him  the  bulwark  of  the  property- 
holding  class,  and  the  theologians  are  distracting 
the  minds  of  the  unfortunate  by  promises  of  pros- 
perity elsewhere.  "  We'll  give  them  back  some  of 
their  heaven,"  said  Felix  Holt,  "  and  take  it  out  in 
something  for  us  and  our  children  in  this  world." 
For  the  person  of  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  re- 
garded as  a  working-man,  a  friend  of  the  poor,  an 
outcast,  a  preacher  of  condemnation  against  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  the  working-class  movement  offers 
fresh  reverence  and  homage.  The  real  Jesus  seems 
indeed,  to  many  hand-workers,  to  have  been  redis- 
covered by  them,  as  though  beneath  some  mediae- 
val fresco  of  an  unreal  and  mystical  Christ  there 

*  Contemporary  Review^  March,  1896. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING        6$ 

had  been  freshly  laid  bare  the  features  of  the 
man  of  Nazareth.  "Christ,"  answered  one  German 
working-man  to  an  inquirer,  "was  a  true  friend 
of  the  working-people,  not  in  his  words  alone,  like 
his  followers,  but  in  his  deeds.  He  was  hated  and 
persecuted  as  is  the  modern  socialist,  and  if  he 
lived  to-day  he  would,  without  doubt,  be  one  of  us."  ^ 
"  Christ,"  wrote  another,  "was  a  great  revolutionist ; 
if  any  one  now  preached  as  he  did,  he  would  be 
arrested."  "He  would  have  accomplished  more," 
adds  a  third,  "  if  he  had  given  his  efforts  rather 
to  economic  and  scientific  ends  than  to  religion." 
"  He  was  a  man  of  the  common  people,"  concludes 
a  fourth,  "  who  fought  a  hard  fight  for  their  moral 
and  economic  welfare."  In  short,  it  has  come  to 
pass,  as  the  author  of  the  "  Kernel  and  the  Husk  " 
anticipated,  that  the  hand-workers  are  saying, 
"  We  used  to  think  that  Christ  was  a  fiction  of  the 
priests  ;  .  .  .  but  now  we  find  that  he  was  a  man, 
after  all,  like  us,  —  a  poor  working-man,  who  had 
a  heart  for  the  poor,  —  and  now  that  we  under- 
stand this  we  say  .  .  .  he  is  the  man  for  us."  ^ 
Here,  then,  is  a  perplexing  situation.    To  a  vast 

1  See  the  exceedingly  interesting  series  of  opinions  collected  by 
Pastor  Rade,  in  his  paper  before  the  Ninth  Evangelical  Social  Con- 
gress, 1898,  "Die  Gedankenwelt  unserer  Industriearbeiter."  Com- 
pare also  Pfluger,  "Kirche  und  Proletariat,"  1899,  s.  4:  "The first 
proclaimers  of  the  gospel,  especially  Jesus  himself,  belonged  to  the 
proletariat;  ...  the  preachers  of  the  gospel  to-day  belong  to 
'  good  society.* " 

2 "The  Kernel  and  the  Husk"  (Am.  ed.  1887),  p.  334  (quoted 
also,  Contemporary  Jieyie^v^  March,  1896,  p.  429). 


66      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

majority  of  those  who  are  most  concerned  with  the 
social  question,  the  Christ  of  the  churches  is  an 
object  of  complete  indifference,  if  not  of  positive 
scorn;  while  to  a  Christ  far  removed  from  the 
traditions  and  creeds  of  Christian  worship,  —  an 
unmysterious,  human  leader  of  the  poor,  —  there 
is  given  an  honor  which  as  a  supernatural  being 
he  no  longer  receives.  On  the  other  hand,  to  the 
vast  majority  of  Christian  worshippers  this  concep- 
tion of  Jesus  as  a  labor-leader  and  social  revolu- 
tionist appears  a  most  inadequate  and  unhistorical 
picture  of  the  Christ  of  the  gospels.  What  have 
we  here  but  a  clean  break  between  the  tradition 
of  the  past  and  the  need  of  the  present.?  On 
the  one  hand  is  the  ancient  and  precious  story 
of  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  individual  soul,  his 
revelation  of  the  Father  to  the  child,  and  his  reve- 
lation of  the  child  to  himself,  his  message  to  the 
religious  life  in  its  experiences  of  sin,  repentance, 
and  spiritual  peace ;  and  on  the  other  hand  is  this 
new  and  unprecedented  appreciation  of  the  exter- 
nal ills  of  environment  and  misfortune,  of  social 
wrong  and  injustice,  and  the  discovery  that  here 
also  Jesus  Christ  has  a  message  of  stern  rebuke 
and  pitying  love.  Is  there,  then,  a  permanent 
chasm  set  between  the  work  of  the  Christian 
Church  and  the  need  of  the  modern  world.?  Is 
there  no  unity  to  be  discovered  beneath  these  di- 
verse conceptions  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  ?  Must 
it  happen  that  the  force  of  the  Christian  religion 
shall  be  limited  to  spiritual  and  personal  renewal, 


COMPREHENSIVENESS    OF   THE   TEACHING        6/ 

and  shall  have  no  part  in  directing  the  social  move- 
ment of  the  time ;  or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
person  of  Jesus  finds  a  place  in  the  social  ques- 
tion, must  it  be  at  the  cost  of  his  spiritual  leader- 
ship and  religious  significance  ?  Must  we  choose 
between  Christ  the  Saviour  and  Jesus  the  Dema- 
gogue ;  or  is  there  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  a  qual- 
ity and  character  which  of  themselves  create  a 
social  message  such  as  the  modern  world  needs  to 
hear?  These  are  the  questions  which  confront 
one  as  he  observes  the  alienation  between  Chris- 
tian teaching  and  social  needs,  and  which  invite 
to  fresh  inquiry  concerning  the  social  teaching  of 
the  gospel.  ^ 

1  The  literature  which  is  of  importance  in  its  new  appreciation 
of  the  social  teaching  of  Jesus  may  be  said  to  begin  with  the  "  Ecce 
Homo  "  of  Professor  Seeley,  1867.  The  main  thesis  of  this  re- 
markable book  —  that  Jesus  was  the  founder  of  an  external  and 
legislative  commonwealth  —  may  be  regarded  as  an  inadequate  or 
even  a  misleading  statement  of  the  purpose  of  Christ  ("Christ 
announced  himself  as  the  Founder,  the  Legislator,  of  a  new  State," 
p.  80 ;  "  To  reorganize  a  society  and  to  bind  the  members  of  it 
together  by  the  closest  ties  were  the  business  of  his  life,"  p.  103 ; 
"The  first  propelling  power  ...  is  the  personal  relation  of  loyal 
vassalage  of  the  citizens  to  the  Prince  of  the  Theocracy,"  p.  95). 
Yet  the  extraordinary  insight  of  this  book  into  the  spirit  of  the 
gospels  and  its  beauty  and  vigor  of  expression  make  its  publication  , 
an  epoch  in  the  interpretation  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

A  second  contribution  of  much  originality  and  power  was  the 
Bampton  Lectures  of  Canon  Fremantle,  "The  World  the  Subject 
of  Redemption,"  1885  (2d  ed.  1895,  with  an  introduction  by  Pro- 
fessor R.  T.  Ely,  and  with  important  appendices  of  illustrative  liter- 
ature). Less  academic,  but  of  the  highest  spiritual  insight,  and 
of  an  importance  not  generally  recognized  by  his  readers,  are  the 
Bohlen  Lectures  of  Phillips  Brooks,  "The  Influence  of  Jesus,"  1879. 


68      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Two  considerations  give  to  such  an  inquiry  a 
peculiar  interest  and  encouragement.  In  the  first 
place,  as  is  evident  from  what  has  been  already 

Closer  to  the  modern  social  spirit,  more  exegetical  in  character,  and 
for  the  general  student  a  sufficient  guide,  is  the  thorough  and  dis- 
criminating book  of  Shailer  Mathews,  "The  Social  Teaching  of 
Jesus,"  1897.  (Compare  also  his  article  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Sociology f  January,  1900,  "  The  Christian  Church  and  Social 
Unity.") 

Of  German  literature,  specifically  devoted  to  this  subject,  the 
only  comprehensive  work  lately  produced  is  the  learned  but  con- 
servative book  of  M.  von  Nathusius,  "Die  Mitarbeit  der  Kirche 
an  der  Losung  der  sozialen  Frage,"  2.  Aufl.,  1897;  see  also  his 
"  Christlich-soziale  Ideen  der  Reformationszeit,"  1897.  Of  less 
systematic  German  studies  may  be  named  :  Schmidt- Warneck,  "  Die 
sozialen  Verhaltnisse  und  die  ethischen  Grundgedanken  des  Evan- 
geliums,"  1891  ;  Uhlhorn,  "Vermischte  Vortrage  fiber  kirchliches 
Leben,"  1875  (s-  353ff-»  "Zur  sozialen  Frage");  Bohmer,  "Bren- 
nende  Zeit-  und  Streitfragen  der  Kirche,"' 1898  ;  Sabatier,  "  Die 
Religion  und  die  moderne  Kultur  "  (ubersetzt  aus  dem  Franzosi- 
schen),  1898  ;   Russland,  "Die  Wirtschaftspolitik  des  Vaterunsers," 

1895. 

Further  should  be  noticed  the  increasing  emphasis  on  the  social 
aspects  of  the  gospel  in  the  general  works  of  New  Testament  inter- 
pretation: e^.  Wendt,  "The  Teaching  of  Jesus  "  (tr.  1897);  ^^y- 
schlag,  "New  Testament  Theology"  (tr.  1895);  Weiss,  "  Biblical 
Theology  of  New  Testament "  (tr.  1882),  I,  62  ff.;  Bruce,  "The 
Kingdom  of  God,"  1891;  and  Gilbert,  "The  Revelation  of  Jesus," 
1899. 

Here  also  may  be  named  less  formal  studies  of  the  influences  of 
Christianity  on  modern  life  :  e.g.  Fairbairn,  "  The  Place  of  Christ  in 
Modern  Theology,"  p.  515  ff. ;  and  his  "  Religion  in  History  and  in 
Modern  Life,"  1894,  Lect.  HI  ;  Gore, "The  Social  Doctrine  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount"  {Economic  Revie^v,  April,  1892);  Rade, 
"Die  Religion  im  modernen  Geistesleben,"  1898,  and  his  "Reli- 
gion und  Moral,"  1898  ;  Soderblom,  "Die  Religion  und  die  soziale 
Entwickelung,"  1898;  Church,  "Christ's  Words  and  Christian 
Society,"  in  his  "  Gifts  of  Civilization,"  1880,  p.  39 ;  G.  Hodges, 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    69 

said,  we  here  approach  the  one  subject  in  Chris- 
tian teaching  where,  on  both  sides  of  the  present 
social  issue,  there  is  sincere  appreciation  and  rev- 
erence. The  theology  of  Christianity,  as  the  slight- 
est glance  at  its  present  tendency  will  indicate,  is 
laying  aside  its  confidence  in  metaphysical  defini- 
tions and  elaborate  formulas,  and  with  a  new 
humility  of  mind  is  turning  to  the  simpler  task 
of  interpreting  and  perpetuating  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ.  "  The  Church  hears  none  but 
Christ,"  said  the  earlier  and  broader  statement 
of  this  return  to  the  gospels;  the  modern  spirit, 
with  more  simplicity,  inquires,  "  What  would  Jesus 
say  ? "  To  follow  Christ,  even  though  one  cannot 
adequately  define  him;  to  be,  not  of  those  who 
name  his  name  alone,  but  of  those  who  desire  to 
do  his  will ;  to  direct  the  life  of  one's  own  soul  and 
the  life  of  the  world  in  ways  of  which  Jesus  might 
say,  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,"  —  these 
principles,  to  the  modern  Christian,  are  not  inci- 
dental to  the  Christian  life,  but  are  the  essence  of 

"  Faith  and  Social  Service,"  1896  ;  E.  W.  Donald,  «  The  Expansion 
of  Religion,"  1898;  R.  T.  Ely,  "Social  Aspects  of  Christianity," 
1889  ;  J.  LI.  Davies,  "The  Gospel  of  Modern  Life,"  1875,  and  his 
"Social  Questions,"  1885  ;  "The  Message  of  Christ  to  Manhood," 
Noble  Lectures,  1895;  Flint,  "Socialism,"  1895  (supplementary 
note,  "  The  Church^  Call  to  study  Social  Questions,"  p.  493  ff.) ; 
Washington  Gladden,  "Applied  Christianity,"  1886,  and  his  "Tools 
and  the  Man,"  1893;  Westcott,  "Social  Aspects  of  Christianity," 
1887;  Harris,  "Moral  Evolution,"  1896,  Ch.  IX  and  X;  Drum- 
mond,  "Via,  Veritas,  Vita,"  The  Hibbert  Lectures  for  1894,  Lect. 
VI,  p.  209  fif.j  Lyman  Abbott,  "Christianity  and  Social  Problems," 
1897.       - 


70      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

it ;  and  this  discernment  and  obedience,  even  when 
accompanied  by  a  high  degree  of  ignorance  as  to 
the  interior  nature  of  the  Godhead  and  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Infinite,  may  still,  it  is  now  widely 
believed,  receive  the  great  word  of  acceptance, 
"Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee;  go  in  peace." ^ 

And  if  it  is  thus  true  that  the  imitation  of  Christ 
has  supplanted  opinion  about  Christ  as  the  test 
of  Christian  discipleship,  it  is  equally  true,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  the  social  movement  also  has 
reached  a  point  of  peculiar  reverence  for  the 
person  of  Jesus.  Inadequate  and  superficial  as 
may  be  the  estimate  on  which  this  reverence 
is  based,  it  gives  a  point  of  contact  between  the 
Church  and  the  world.  The  ecclesiastics  may 
argue  their  claim  to  authority,  and  the  theologians 
may  devise  their  systems  of  orthodoxy;  yet  all 
these  assumptions  and  deliberations  will  wholly 
fail  to  impress  the  people  of  the  trades-unions, 
or  the  social  democracy  of  the  city  slums.  Let 
the  social  teaching  of  the  gospels,  however,  be 
told  —  ever  so  simply  —  with  its  tender  summons, 
"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy 
laden,"  ^  with  its  test  of  discipleship,  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these  my  brethren,  even 
these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  me,"  ^  and  the  heavy 
laden  and  those  who  are  least  in  the  modern  world 
become  responsive  to  the  teaching,  and  touched 
with  reverence  for  the  person  whom  they  thus 
dimly  discern.     Hopeless,  therefore,  as  one  may 

1  Luke  vii.  50.  ^  Matt.  xi.  28.  *  Matt.  xxv.  40, 41. 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE  TEACHING        7 1 

be  of  coming  to  any  understanding  with  the  social 
movement  through  the  prevailing  methods  of  Chris- 
tianity, there  is  still  ground  for  hope  that  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  may  have  new  adaptations  to  the  need 
of  the  new  time.  The  talk  of  the  churches  is  for 
the  most  part  in  a  language  as  unintelHgible  as 
Hebrew  to  the  modern  hand-worker;  but  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  he  seems  to  hear  the  welcome 
accents  of  a  familiar  tongue.  A  common  rever- 
ence may  beget  a  mutual  understanding.  The 
Christian  believer  and  the  social  reformer  may 
perhaps  meet  each  other  as  they  both  approach 
the  simplicity  which  is  in  Christ.^ 

To  this  characteristic  of  the  present  inquiry  must 
be  added  a  further  encouraging  consideration.  The 
problem  to  which  we  are  invited,  of  determining 
the  relation  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  the  special 
needs  of  the  real  world,  is  in  its  nature  not,  as 
may  be  supposed,  a  new  problem,  but  a  continu- 
ally recurring  one.  Each  period  in  civilization 
has  had,  in  turn,  its  own  peculiar  interest  and  its 
own  spiritual  demands,  and  each,  in  turn,  following 
its  own  path  back  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  has 
found  there  what  seemed  an  extraordinary  adapta- 
tion of  that  teaching  to  immediate  issues  and  needs. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  surprising  traits  of  the 

1  Gohre,  "Drei  Monate  Fabrikarbeiter,"  1891,  s.  190.  "Only 
one  quality  (of  religion)  remains  —  respect  and  reverence  for  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is,  indeed,  a  new  picture  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He 
lacks  the  supernatural  light  in  his  eyes,  the  divinity  assigned  to  him 
by  the  theologians  is  a  subject  for  smiles  ;  ...  but  they  all  stand 
reverently  and  quiet  before  his  great  personality." 


72      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

gospel.  It  seems  to  each  age  to  have  been  written 
for  the  sake  of  the  special  problems  which  at 
the  moment  appear  most  pressing.  As  each 
new  transition  in  human  interest  occurs,  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  seems  to  possess  new  value.  In 
one  age  the  focus  of  human  interest  was  at  that 
point  where  the  Greek  mind  met  the  Hebrew  tra- 
dition, and  developed  the  beginning  of  Christian 
theology ;  and  to  that  age  there  spoke  the  great  say- 
ings of  Jesus  concerning  his  relation  to  the  Father, 
as  though  the  determination  of  the  place  of  Jesus 
in  theology  were  the  essence  of  the  gospel.  To 
another  age,  absorbed  in  ecclesiastical  development, 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  seemed  specially  directed  to 
establishing  the  organization  of  the  Church.  This 
illumination  of  each  view  and  tendency  is  felt  in 
turn  by  each  modern  student  of  the  gospels  as  he 
considers  from  some  fresh  point  of  view  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  One  scholar,  on  the  watch  —  as  was 
Renan  —  for  the  picturesque  and  Oriental  traits  of 
a  Galilean  peasant,  finds  in  the  visionary '  hopes 
of  such  a  youth  a  key  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus ; 
another  scholar,  with  the  habit  of  mind  of  a  con- 
stitutional historian,  sees  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
primarily  the  work  of  the  framer  of  a  constitution, 
and  defines  his  mission  as  **  the  rise  of  a  monarchy, 
the  purest  and  most  ideal  that  has  ever  existed 
among  men  "  ;  ^  still  another  scholar,  profoundly 
impressed  by  the  note  of  melancholy  and  despair 
which  is  heard  in  modern  literature,  turns  again  to 

»  "  Ecce  Homo,"  Ch.  X,  "  Christ's  Legislation." 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE  TEACHING    73 

this  same  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  finds  its  central 
quality  to  be  "  A  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt."  ^ 
Does  this  divergence  of  impression  mean  that  each 
age  and  each  scholar  creates  a  new  Christ,  and 
that  what  seems  to  be  a  historical  figure  is  in  real- 
ity only  the  reflection  of  the  inquirer's  mind  thrown 
upon  the  screen  of  the  past  ?  Is  it  only  the  pious 
imaginations  of  successive  students  which  make 
of  Jesus  now  the  source  of  a  theology  and  now  the 
founder  of  a  church,  now  peasant,  now  king,  now 
the  deliverer  from  doubt?  On  the  contrary,  the 
life  of  Jesus  has,  in  fact,  all  these  aspects,  and 
indeed  many  more ;  and  it  is  not  as  false  inter- 
preters, but  as  partial  witnesses,  that  men  stand  in 
their  own  place  and  report  that  view  of  the  gospel 
which  presents  itself  to  their  minds.  This  extraor- 
dinary capacity  for  new  adaptations,  this  quality 
of  comprehensiveness  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
which  so  many  evidences  of  the  past  illustrate, 
prepares  us  in  our  turn  for  its  fresh  applicability 
to  the  question  which  most  concerns  the  present 
age.  As  it  has  happened  a  thousand  times  before, 
so  it  is  likely  to  happen  again,  that  the  gospel, 
examined  afresh  with  a  new  problem  in  mind,  will 
seem  again  to  have  been  written  in  large  part  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  new  age.  Words  and  deeds 
which  other  generations  have  found  perplexing  or 
obscure  may  be  illuminated  with  meaning,  as  one 
now  sees  them  in  the  light  of  the  new  social  agita- 
tion and  hope.     It  will  seem,  perhaps,  as  it  has 

1  Henry  Van  Dyke,  "The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt,"  1896. 


74      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

seemed  so  often  before,  that  no  other  age  could 
have  adequately  appreciated  the  teaching  of  Jesus ; 
as  if  his  prophetic  mind  must  have  looked  across 
the  centuries  and  discerned  the  distant  coming  of 
social  conflicts  and  aspirations  which  in  his  own 
time  were  insignificant,  but  which  are  now  uni- 
versal and  profound. 

Such  is  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  A  great  modern  preacher  has  de- 
scribed this  power  of  adaptation  in  the  parable 
of  the  fairy  tent.^  Set  in  the  king's  palace,  this 
magic  enclosure  was  not  too  large  for  the  smallest 
room ;  placed  in  the  court-yard,  it  was  large 
enough  to  shelter  all  the  nobles;  brought  out 
upon  the  plain,  it  grew  to  cover  the  whole  army 
of  the  king;  there  was  "infinite  flexibility,  in- 
finite expansiveness."  Jesus  himself,  according  to 
the  fourth  gospel,  with  still  greater  suggestive- 
ness,  repeatedly  describes  his  mission  through 
the  parable  of  the  light.  "I  am,"  he  says,  "the 
light  of  the  world  " ;  ^  **  I  am  come  a  light  into 
the  world " ;  ^  <«  yet  a  little  while  is  the  light 
among  you ;  walk  while  ye  have  the  light."  * 
Light  is  by  its  very  nature  comprehensive,  trans- 
missible, ubiquitous.  There  is  not  too  much  for 
each  man's  need,  and  yet  there  is  enough  for  all 
Each  separate  chamber  seems  to  have  all  the  sun- 
shine, while  the  unexhausted  light  radiates  into  a 
million  other  homes.     It  is  the  same  with  the  in- 

^  Stopford  Brooke,  "  Religion  in  Modern  Life,"  first  sermon. 
*  John  viii.  12.  *  John  xii.  46.  *  John  xii.  35, 


COMPREHENSIVENESS   OF   THE    TEACHING         75 

fluence  of  Jesus  Christ.  Each  new  age  or  move- 
ment or  personal  desire  seems  to  itself  to  receive 
with  a  peculiar  fulness  its  special  teaching,  and  it 
is  quite  true  that  a  direct  ray  of  communication 
and  illumination  enters  that  chamber  of  the  mind 
which  reaches  no  other  point.  It  is  as  if  one  stood 
at  night  watching  the  moon  rise  from  the  sea, 
and  saw  the  glittering  band  of  light  which  leads 
straight  to  him,  as  though  the  moon  were  shining 
for  one  life  alone ;  while  in  fact  he  knows  that  its 
comprehensive  radiation  is  for  him,  and  for  the 
joy  and  guidance  of  a  world  besides.  So  the  unex- 
hausted gospel  of  Jesus  touches  each  new  problem 
and  new  need  with  its  illuminating  power,  while 
there  yet  remain  myriads  of  other  ways  of  radia- 
tion toward  other  souls  and  other  ages,  for  that 
Life  which  is  the  light  of  men. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS 

iFot  t\}tix  sakfg  ]E  sanctifg  rngself . 

We  turn  to  the  story  of  the  gospels,  inquiring 
for  the  relation  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  various 
social  questions  of  the  present  age.  Before  enter- 
ing, however,  into  the  details  of  such  an  inquiry, 
it  may  be  of  advantage  to  survey  the  story  as  a 
whole,  and  to  consider  whether  there  are  any  gen- 
eral characteristics  or  principles  which  lie  plainly 
on  the  face  of  the  gospels,  and  which  indicate  the 
habitual  attitude  of  the  mind  of  Jesus  toward  such 
problems  of  social  reform. 

On  opening  the  gospels  with  this  general  pur- 
pose in  mind,  one  is  immediately  impressed  by  the 
abundance  of  material  presented.  Jesus  was  no 
recluse  or  ascetic.  He  lived  in  a  world  of  social 
intimacies,  problems  and  companionships.  The 
first  act  of  his  ministry  was  to  gather  about  him 
an  intimate  group  of  friends  through  whose  asso- 
ciated activity  his  teaching  was  to  be  perpetuated. 
He  entered  with  unaffected  and  equal  sympathy 
into  the  joys  and  the  sorrows  of  social  life.^  He 
was  familiar  with  the  most  various  social  types, 

*  John  ii.  i-i  I  ;  xi.  1-44, 

7*  . 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  'J^ 

fishermen  ^  and  Pharisees,^  tax-gatherers  ^  and  beg- 
gars,* Jews^  and  Romans,^  saints  ^  and  sinners.^ 
Almost  every  social  question  known  to  his  age 
was  in  some  form  brought  before  him,  either  to 
receive  his  judgment  or  to  make  a  snare  for  his 
teaching.  The  integrity  of  the  family,  the  rela- 
tions of  rich  and  poor,  the  responsibilities  of  the 
prosperous,  —  all  these,  which  seem  to  be  mod- 
em questions,  receive  from  Jesus  reiterated  and 
often  stem  consideration,  so  that  it  would  seem  to 
be  a  matter  of  slight  difficulty  to  determine  from 
such  ample  material  the  character  of  his  social 
teaching. 

There  are,  however,  several  aspects  of  his  min- 
istry which  must  be  clearly  recognized  before  this 
teaching  can  be  interpreted  in  its  full  significance 
or  scope.  In  the  first  plice,  as  one  sums  up  his 
general  impression  of  the  gospels,  it  becomes 
obvious  that,  whatever  social  teaching  there  may 
be  in  them,  and  however  weighty  it  may  be,  the 
mind  of  the  Teacher  was  primarily  turned  another 
way.  The  supreme  concern  of  Jesus  throughout 
his  ministry  was,  —  it  may  be  unhesitatingly  as- 
serted, —  not  the  reorganization  of  human  society, 
but  the  disclosu>B  to  the  human  soul  of  its  relation 
to  God.  Jesus  was,  first  of  all,  not  a  reformer 
but  a  revealer ;  he  was  not  primarily  an  agitator 

1  Matt.  iv.  i8.  *  John  iii.  i. 

«  Acts  xxiii.  6.  ®  Matt.  viii.  5. 

«  Matt.  ix.  9  ;  Luke  v.  27.  ^  Luke  x.  42. 

*  Mark  x.  46 ;  John  ix.  I.  *  Luke  xix.  7  ;  Tii.  37. 


78      JESUS   CHRIST   AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

with  a  plan,  but  an  idealist  with  a  vision.  His 
mission  was  religious.  His  central  desire  was 
to  make  plain  to  human  souls  the  relation  in 
which  they  stand  to  their  heavenly  Father.  "  Lord, 
shew  us  the  Father,"  say  the  disciples,  "and  it 
sufficeth  us."  ^  "  The  gospel,"  as  a  great  German 
scholar  remarks,  "is  not  one  of  social  improve- 
ment, but  one  of  spiritual  redemption."  ^ 

Still  further,  there  was  at  times  in  the  spiritual 
attitude  of  Jesus  a  certain  quality  of  remoteness 
and  detachment  from  the  social  problems  which 
were  presented  to  his  mind.  He  refused  to  be 
entangled  in  them.  Distribution  of  property  was 
not  within  his  province:  "Man,"  he  says,  "who 
made  me  a  judge  or  a  divider  over  you  ? "  ^  Forms 
of  government  were  not  for  him  to  change : 
"  Render  therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's."  *  There  was  political  oppression  about 
him  to  be  remedied,  there  were  social  unrighteous- 
ness and  iniquity  to  be  condemned;  but  Jesus 
jdoes  not  fling  himself  into  these  social  issues  of 
I  his  time.  He  moves  through  them  with  a  strange 
tranquillity,  not  as  one  who  is  indifferent  to  them, 
but  as  one  whose  eye  is  fixed  on  an  end  in  which! 
these  social  problems  will  find  their  own  solution. 
The  social  questions  met  him,  as  it  were,  on  his^ 
way,  and  his  dealing  with  them  is  occasional  iand 
unsystematic.     Sometimes,  when  confronted  with 

*  John  xiv.  8. 

2  A.  Haniack,  5ter  Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  s.  120. 

*  Luke  xii.  14.  *  Matt  xxii.  21. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF  THE  TEACHING  79 

such  a  question,  he  turns  from  it  to  the  question 
of  spiritual  motive  which  lies  beneath  the  social 
demand.  He  is  asked  to  deal  with  the  special 
problem  of  inheritance,  and  his  answer  opens  the 
larger  question  of  the  love  of  money :  "  Take 
heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covetousness."^ 
In  short,  Jesus  will  not  be  diverted  by  the  demand 
for  a  social  teaching  from  the  special  message  of 
spiritual  renewal  which  he  is  called  to  bring.  In 
many  of  the  processes  of  applied  science,  there 
are  certain  results  known  as  by-products,  which 
are  thrown  off  or  precipitated  on  the  way  to  the 
special  result  desired.  It  may  happen  that  these 
by-products  are  of  the  utmost  value  ;  but  none  the 
less  they  are  obtained  by  the  way.  Such  a  by- 
product is  the  social  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  was 
not  the  end  toward  which  his  mission  was  directed  ; 
it  came  about  as  he  fulfilled  that  mission.  To 
reconstruct  the  gospels  so  as  to  make  them  pri- 
marily a  programme  of  social  reform  is  to  mistake 
the  by-product  for  the  end  specifically  sought,  and, 
in  the  desire  to  find  a  place  for  Jesus  within  the 
modern  age,  to  forfeit  that  which  gives  him  his 
place  in  all  ages.^ 

To  this  characteristic  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
must  be  added  another  which  has  equal  signifi- 
cance in  its  bearing  on  the  social  question.     It  is 

1  Luke  xii.  15. 

2  See  also  "  The  Message  of  Christ  to  Manhood,"  Noble 
Lectures,  1898,  II,  F.  G.  Peabody,  "The  Message  of  Christ  to 
Human  Society,"  p.  66. 


80     JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  occasionalism  of  his  teaching.  Jesus  was  not 
the  maker  of  a  system.  He  considers  each  case 
by  itself.  He  is  not  posing  at  every  turn  as  though 
the  future  were  listening  to  him.  He  gives  him- 
self, with  complete  disinterestedness,  to  the  single 
person  or  special  group  or  specific  case  before 
him.  "Jesus,"  says  Wendt,  "was  not  a  scientific 
teacher,  but  a  popular  preacher.  He  did  not  pre- 
sent his  practical  demands  in  abstract  form  and 
systematic  development  He  applied  them  to 
those  persons  with  whom  he  had  directly  to  do, 
and  to  their  concrete  relations  and  needs;  .  .  . 
without  qualifying  them  by  limitations  and  condi- 
tions which  might  come  into  notice  from  other 
points  of  view."^  In  short,  Jesus  is  primarily 
thinking  of  individuals.  The  initial  impulse  of  his 
word  and  work  is  this  thought  of  the  preciousness 
of  personality.  The  shepherd  leaves  the  ninety 
and  nine  sheep  and  seeks  the  one  that  is  lost ;  ^  the 
wonian  sweeps  the  house  to  find  the  one  piece  of 
money .^  General  principles  issue  indeed  from  the 
discourse  of  Jesus,  as  an  aroma  rises  from  a  rose : 
but  the  source  of  this  pervasive  fragrance  is  in 
that  special  and  individual  flower  which  blooms  in 
his  conversation  or  his  deeds. 

The  teaching  of  Jesus,  being  thus  fragmentary, 
is  often,  in  its  details,  inconsistent.  One  who 
proposes  to  follow  literally  the  specific  commands 

1  8ter  Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1897,  "I^as  Eigentum  nach  christ* 
licher  Beurteilung,"  s.  23. 

*  Matt,  xviii.  12.  •  Luke  xv.  8. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  8 1 

of  Jesus  finds  himself  immediately  plunged  into 
contradictions  or  absurdities.  He  accepts  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  non-resistance :  "  To 
him  that  smiteth  thee  on  the  one  cheek  offer 
also  the  other; "^  but  soon  he  hears  this  same 
counsellor  of  peace  bid  his  friends  sell  their 
garments  "  and  buy  a  sword."  ^  He  joins  with 
the  modern  agitator  in  repeating  the  passionate 
rebuke  of  Jesus,  "  Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich ; " 
and  then  he  looks  again  and  sees  the  same  Jesus 
meeting  the  young  man  who  had  great  posses- 
sions, and  loving  him.  He  proposes  to  abandon 
all  luxury  and  domestic  peace  in  order  to  fol- 
low him  who  "  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head ;  "  ^ 
and  then  he  looks  again  and  finds  this  same  Jesus 
serenely  sharing  the  gayety  of  a  wedding  feast* 
and  the  peace  of  a  comfortable  home.^  To  inter- 
pret, therefore,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  there  is 
needed  more  than  willingness  of  heart.  The  study/ 
of  the  gospels  calls  for  common  sense.  In  fact, 
the  devotion  to  the  letter  of  the  New  Testament  is 
one  of  the  chief  impediments  to  the  perception  of 
its  spirit.  The  very  essence  of  its  interpretation 
lies  in  the  discernment,  through  the  medium 
of  detached  utterances,  of  the  general  habit  of 
mind  of  the  Teacher.  Jesus  himself  repeatedly 
intimated  that  he  required  this  thoughtfulness  in 
his  disciples.  Those  who  had  ears  to  hear,^  he 
said,  could  receive  his  teaching,  but  to  others  it 

1  Luke  vi.  29.  '  Matt.  viii.  20.  ^  John  xi.  6. 

2  Luke  xxii.  36.  *  John  ii.  2.  •  Mark  iv.  9. 

G 


82      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

was  not  given  to  understand.  His  teaching  was 
like  that  of  the  artist,  who  does  not  argue  concern- 
ing beauty,  but  utters  it,  in  color  or  in  form,  and 
leaves  the  problem  of  appreciation  for  those  who 
can  hear  or  see.  He  throws  his  truth  into  the 
world  for  those  who  can  receive  it.  "  Go,  ..." 
he  says  to  those  who  ask  for  his  doctrine,  "  and 
tell  John  what  things  ye  have  seen  and  heard."  ^ 
By  his  teaching  concerning  specific  cases  the  dis- 
ciples are  trained  in  a  certain  habit  of  mind,  which 
in  its  turn  interprets  other  cases  as  they  arise.  It 
is  as  Jesus  promised  that  it  should  be  to  those  who 
followed  him :  "  When  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is 
come,  he  shall  guide  you  into  all  the  truth."  ^ 

Thus  the  problem  presented  to  a  hearer  of  Jesus 
in  his  own  time,  or  to  a  reader  of  his  words  in  the 
present  time,  is  to  receive  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in 
the  light  of  the  special  circumstances  and  sugges- 
tions which  prompted  it,  and  to  deduce  therefrom 
the  general  principle  which  this  teaching  represents. 
"If,"  as  Wendt  again  remarks,  "we  examine  the 
recorded  words  of  Jesus  in  an  isolated  way,  we  find 
more  than  one  meaning  apparently  possible,  and 
are  able  to  decide  with  certainty  for  one  of  those 
meanings  by  virtue  of  our  knowledge  of  the  mode 
of  teaching  acquired  by  extensive  observation  in 
other  cases."  ^    The  study  of  the  law  has  been  of 

1  Luke  vii.  22.  2  John  xvi.  13. 

8  "Teaching  of  Jesus"  (tr.  1897),  I>  P-  'O^*  Compare  also 
Paulsen,  "Ethik,"  s.  72,  "The  universal  applicability  of  the  gospel 
proceeds  from  the  fact  that  it  is  not  a  philosophical  or  theological 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  83 

late  in  a  great  degree  transformed  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  what  is  known  as  the  case-system.  Instead 
of  lectures  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  juris- 
prudence, the  learner  is  now  confronted  with  de- 
tached and  genuine  cases,  from  scrutinizing  which, 
in  their  likeness  and  variations,  he  is  encouraged 
to  deduce  the  principles  which  they  combine  to 
illustrate.  Something  like  this  is  the  method  in 
which  are  communicated  the  principles  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  They  are  not  unfolded  in  a 
philosophical  system,  but  are  involved  in  the 
treatment  of  specific  cases ;  and  to  the  observant 
student  this  occasionalism  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
is  precisely  what  gives  it  a  perennial  freshness, 
vitality  and  force.^ 

Here,  then,  are  two  characteristics  of  the  gosper, 
which  would  seem  in  some  degree  to  obscure 
its  social  teaching,  —  an  evident  subordination 
of  social  problems,  and  an  equally  evident  limi- 
tation of  instruction  to  specific  instances  and  occa- 
sions. Jesus  speaks  chiefly  of  God,  and  speaks 
chiefly  to  the  individual.  It  would  seem,  then,  as 
if  we  must  have  been  misled  in  anticipating  from 
him  a  clear  and  impressive  teaching  concerning 
the  social  world.  If  Jesus  was  not  primarily  de- 
voted to  the  social  question,  and  if  again  his  teach- 

system.  Systems  pass  away,  .  .  .  but  great  poems  are  as  eternal  as 
their  subject  —  human  life  itself." 

1  Compare  also  the  interesting  proposition  to  apply  the  same 
method  to  the  study  of  medicine:  W.  B.  Cannon,  "The  Case- 
method  of  teaching  Systematic  Medicine,"  Boston  Medical  and 
Surgical  Journal^  January  11,  1900. 


84      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL  -QUESTION 

ing  was  chiefly  personal  and  occasional  instead  of 
systematic  and  universal,  is  it  not  difficult  to  derive 
from  it  any  general  principles  which  shall  be  appli- 
cable to  the  problems  of  modern  social  life  ?  On 
the  contrary,  one  must  answer,  it  is  precisely  these 
two  characteristics,  his  relation  to  God  and  his  rela- 
tion to  the  individual,  the  loftiness  of  his  Theism 
and  the  precision  of  his  occasionalism,  which  open, 
as  we  consider  them,  into  the  social  principles  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

On  the  one  hand,  this  tranquil  elevation  of  mind 
above  the  social  issues  of  his  day  is  what  gives  to 
Jesus  his  wisdom  and  insight  concerning  them. 
He  only  truly  sees  things  who  sees  round  them 
and  beyond  them.  Breadth  of  wisdom  requires  a 
large  horizon  of  the  mind.  The  man  of  details  is 
shut  in  by  them,  so  that  they  obstruct  rather  than 
enlarge  his  view.  The  wise  physician  deals  best 
with  the  sick  man,  not  by  being  a  participator  in 
the  emotion  and  distress  involved  in  the  single 
case,  but  by  detaching  himself  from  them  and 
examining  the  single  case  with  the  tranquillity  and 
self-control  of  a  broader  view.  The  wise  general 
does  not  throw  himself  into  the  smoke  of  battle, 
but  stands  apart  from  it  and  above  it,  where  he 
can  survey  and  direct  the  whole.  The  wise  coun- 
sellor is  he  who  stands  above  the  issue  which  calls 
for  judgment  and  sees  it  in  the  perspective  of  a 
wide  experience.  Sometimes  it  happens  that  the 
highest  wisdom  in  affairs  of  the  practical  world  is 
an  endowment  of  the  most  unworldly  men.     They 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF  THE  TEACHING  85 

see  into  life  by  seeing  over  it,  and  men  of  business 
turn  to  such  advisers  for  counsel  because  of  the 
horizon  which  their  judgments  survey.^ 

This  quality  of  wisdom  is  not  the  trait  most 
commonly  associated  with  the  life  of  Jesus.  His 
tenderness  of  heart  has  obscured  from  obser- 
vation his  sagacity  of  mind.  Yet  one  cannot 
approach  his  dealings  with  the  questions  which 
were  brought  to  him  without  being  impressed  by 
this  quality  of  insight,  foresight,  comprehensive- 
ness, wisdom.  The  traditions  of  the  Church  as- 
cribe to  Jesus  almost  every  other  virtue  rather 
than  that  of  sagacity.  He  is  the  type  of  submis- 
sion and  resignation.  His  features,  as  portrayed 
by  Christian  art,  represent,  almost  invariably,  a 
feminine,  spiritual,  patient  personality,  not  one 
that  is  virile,  commanding  and  strong.  He  has 
become  the  ideal  of  the  monastic  and  ascetic  char- 
acter, and  in  many  minds  would  have  no  consid- 
eration as  a  wise  guide  in  practical  affairs.  A 
more  careful  study  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  leads 
to  quite  an  opposite  impression.  He  was  indeed 
a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,  but 
he  was  none  the  less  truly  a  man  of  wisdom  and 
acquainted  with  human  nature.  His  sanity  of 
judgment  is  as  extraordinary  as  his  depth  of  sym- 

1  Compare  also  Seneca,  "  De  Qementia,"  II,  6,  "  He  will  dry 
another's  tears,  but  will  not  weep  with  him.  .  .  .  This  he  will  do 
with  calmness  of  mind,  and  with  an  unchanged  countenance.'* 
(Succuret  alienis  lacrimis,  non  accedet.  .  .  .  Faciet  ista  tranquillA 
mente,  voltu  suo.)  And  the  saying  of  Neander  (Preface  to  Vinet's 
**  Socialisme  "  ),  "  Um  sich  hinzugeben,  muss  man  sich  angehoren." 


86      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

pathy.  The  first  impression  made  by  the  boy 
Jesus  on  those  who  met  him  was  of  his  budding 
wisdom ;  he  "  advanced  in  wisdom  and  stature."  ^ 
The  first  comment  of  many  hearers  upon  his 
teaching  concerned  its  sagacity  :  "  Whence  hath 
this  man  this  wisdom? "^  Christian  art  and  rever- 
ence, in  remembering  the  prophecy  fulfilled  in 
him,  "In  all  their  affliction  he  was  afflicted,"^  has 
forgotten  that  other  hope  of  a  just  and  discrimi- 
nating guide,  which  was  equally  fulfilled  in  him : 
"  The  government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulder :  and 
his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor;  " * 
"  and  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him, 
the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding."^^ The 
picture  of  Jesus  which  Christian  art  has  yet  to 
paint  is  that  of  the  masculine  Christ,  a  personality 
who  teaches  with  authority,  and  whose  large  hori- 
zon gives  him  comprehensiveness  of  view.  ' ! 

Jesus  himself  testified  whence  this  wisdom  came. 
It  was,  he  said,  his  detachment  from  the  world 
which  gave  him  insight  concerning  the  things  of 
the  world.  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  myself,"®  His  leadership 
in  the  affairs  of  earth  comes  of  his  being  lifted  up 
from  it;  his  religious  mission  created  his  social 
authority.  At  the  end  of  his  ministry  he  prom- 
ises to  his  disciples  that  their  power  for  social 
service  shall  be  enriched  by  the  continuity  of 
relationship  which  he  was  to  bear  to  the  life  of 

1  Luke  ii.  52.  •  Is.  Ixiii.  9.  *  Is.  xi.  2. 

*  Matt.  xiii.  54.  *  Is.  ix,  6.  ®  John  xii.  32. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  8/ 

God :  "  Greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do, 
because  I  go  unto  the  Father."  ^  It  is  said  of 
Count  Zinzendorf,  the  pious  nobleman  who  wel- 
comed the  exiled  Moravians  to  his  home,  that  as 
a  young  man  he  could  ride  the  wildest  horse  in 
his  father's  stables;  and  on  being  asked  how  it 
could  happen  that  one  could  be  at  the  same  time 
a  pietist  and  an  athlete,  he  answered,  "  Only  he  to 
whom  earthly  things  are  indifferent  becomes  their 
master."  2  There  was  this  masterly  quality  in  the 
social  teaching  of  Jesus.  Instead  of  being  en- 
tangled by  social  questions,  he  moved  through 
them  with  a  quiet  authority  and  even  a  delicate 
irony.  His  conversation  was  in  heaven;  therefore 
the  world  was  at  his  feet. 

Here  is  one  of  the  most  striking  contrasts  be- 
tween the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  that  of  the  prophets 
of  the  Old  Testament.  They  threw  themselves  into 
the  midst  of  the  struggle  for  national  righteousness, 
exhorting,  rebuking,  upbraiding  their  people  as  they 
wavered  or  retreated  into  wrong ;  Jesus  surveys 
this  struggle,  as  it  were,  from  above,  as  an  incident 
of  the  great  campaign  of  God.  The  prophets 
wrestled  with  the  waves  of  social  agitation ;  Jesus 
walked  upon  them.  The  difference  was  not  so 
much  one  of  social  intention  as  of  social  horizon. 
The  work  of  a  reformer  is  for  his  own  age ;  that 
of  a  revealer  for  all  ages.  The  social  teaching  of 
Jesus  is  universal,  precisely  because  it  was  a  by- 
product,  issuing  from  his  universal  teaching  of  the 
*  John  xiv.  12.  ^Nathusius  (op.  cit.),  s.  317,  note. 


88      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

i  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.  Jesus  looks  at  the 
social  world  from  above,  and  that  point  of  view 
gives  him  courage,  optimism,  comprehensiveness, 
vision,  hope. 

The  second  characteristic  of  the  gospels  which 
we  have  noticed  is  not  less  fruitful  in  social  con- 
sequences. Jesus,  as  we  have  seen,  primarily 
addressed  himself  in  his  teaching  to  individual 
cases  and  immediate  ends.  Once  only,  and  that 
at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  and  to  his  selected 
group  of  personal  disciples,  does  he  approach  any- 
thing like  a  formal  announcement  of  what  may  be 
called  general  principles.^  For  the  most  part 
he  uses  a  *'  case-system " ;  he  discourses  with  a 
few ;  he  heals  people  one  at  a  time ;  he  lavishes 
his  richest  instruction  on  individuals ;  and  finally, 
having  attached  to  his  teaching  only  a  handful 
of  plain  people,  he  gives  back  his  work  to  the 
Father  with  a  strange  sense  of  completeness  in  it. 
"  It  is  finished,"  ^  he  says ;  "  Having  accomplished 
the  work  which  thou  hast  given  me  to  do."^  He 
is  not  only  indifferent  to  numbers,  but  often  seems 
disinclined  to  deal  with  numbers.  He  sends  the 
multitudes  away;  he  goes  apart  into  a  mountain 
with  his  chosen  disciples;*  he  withdraws  himself 
from  the  throng  in  Jerusalem  to  the  quiet  home 
at  Bethany ;  ^  he  discourses  of  the  profoundest 
purpose  of  his  mission  with  the  twelve  in  an 
upper    room ;  ^    he   opens    the    treasures   of   his 

1  Matt,  v-vii.  '  John  xvii.  4.  ^  John  xii,  i. 

*  John  xix.  30.  *  Matt.  xvii.  i.  «  Luke  xxii.  12-38. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF  THE   TEACHING  89 

wisdom  before  one  Pharisee  at  night,  ^  and  one 
unresponsive  woman  by  the  well.^  What  does 
this  extraordinary  individualization  of  teaching  in- 
dicate as  to  the  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  social 
reform  ?  It  indicates  the  instrument  to  which  he 
was  willing  to  trust  his  hope  for  the  world.  What 
he  had  to  give  he  gave  to  individuals,  to  be  given 
again  through  individuals.  "As  the  Father  has 
sent  me,"  he  says,  "even  so  send  I  you."^  His 
way  of  approach  to  the  life  of  his  age  was  not 
by  external  organization  or  mass-movements  or 
force  of  numbers,  or  in  any  way  from  without; 
but  by  interior  inspiration,  by  the  quickening  of 
individuals,  by  the  force  of  personality,  or,  so 
to  speak,  from  within. 

When  one  considers  the  traditions  and  hopes 
of  his  people,  and  the  sense  of  capacity  in  him- 
self of  which  he  must  have  been  aware,  it  is 
simply  amazing  that  Jesus  did  not  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  movement,  or  establish  an 
organization,  or  direct  his  teaching  to  the  whole- 
sale conversion  of  the  multitude.  Yet  hardly  any 
problem  of  exegesis  is  more  difficult  than  to  dis- 
cover in  the  gospels  an  administrative  or  organiz- 
ing or  ecclesiastical  Christ.  On  the  contrary, 
there  is,  in  his  teaching,  a  remarkable  quality  of 
reserve  and  privacy.  Sometimes  he  charges  his 
hearers  not  to  tell  what  he  has  said  or  done.*  He 
interprets   privately  to   his   friends   the   teaching 

1  John  iii.  1-21.  ^  John  iv.  7-29.  »  John  xx,  21. 

*  Matt.  viii.  4  ;  Mark  viii.  26  ;  Luke  v.  14  j  Matt.  xvii.  9. 


90      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

which  others  have  not  understood.^  Never  did 
a  popular  leader  leave  his  work  so  little  systema- 
tized. The  sense  of  incompleteness  in  it  gave  his 
friends  in  his  last  days  a  sense  of  bewildered  help- 
lessness. The  only  light  they  had  was  in  his  life,- 
and  when  he  told  them  that  it  was  expedient  for 
them  that  he  should  go  away,  the  light  seemed'to 
them  to  go  out.^  "  But  we  hoped,"  they  said,  "  that 
it  was  he  which  should  redeem  Israel."^  He  had 
given  them  no  indication  of  the  external  form 
which  should  issue  from  his  teaching.  He  trusted 
to  the  capacity  of  individuals,  if  only  their  hearts 
should  have  received  the  spirit  of  truth,  to  deal 
with  problems  of ,  form  and  organization  as  they 
arrived.  In  short,  instead  of  regeneration  by 
organization,  Jesus  offers  regeneration  by  inspira- 
tion. He  was  not  primarily  the  deviser  of  a  social 
system,  but  the  quickener  of  single  lives.  His 
gift  is  not  that  of  form,  but  that  of  life.  "  I  came," 
he  says,  "that  they  may  have  life";*  "The  words 
that  I  have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit,  and  are 
life  "  ;^  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also."  ^  The 
communication  of  vitality,  the  contagion  of  per- 
sonality, the  transmission  of  character,  —  these 
are  the  ends  he  seeks,  and  these  are  possible  only 
through  that  individualization  of  teaching  which 
marks  his  ministry.  As  Phillips  Brooks  once  said, 
"Jesus  was  not  primarily  the  Deed-Doer,  or  the 

1  Mark  iv.  34.  *  John  x.  10. 

2  John  xvi.  7.  *  John  vi.  63. 
•  Luke  xxiv.  21.                               '  John  xiv.  19, 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  9 1 

Word-Sayer,  he  was  the  Life-Giver."  ^  Even  of 
himself  and  of  his  own  mission,  he  announces 
that  if  begins  with  the  individual.  "  For  their 
sakes,"  he  says,  I  do  not,  first  of  all,  organize 
ah  associated  life  or  announce  a  scheme  of  salva- 
tion ;  but,  first  of  all,  **  I  sanctify  myself."  ^  Jesus, 
in  short,  not  only  surveys  human  life  from  above, 
but  he  approaches  it  from  within. 

These  two  qualities,  however,  of  social  wisdom 
and  social  power,  are  not  the  only  principles  which 
govern  the  social  teaching  of  Jesus.  Indeed,  they 
are  but  introductory  to  the  most  conspicuous  and 
central  of  his  social  principles.  Beyond  the  point 
of  view  from  which  he  looks  at  the  world,  and  the 
instrument  to  which  he'  intrusts  his  work  for  the 
world,  lies  his  ideal  for  the  world,  —  a  social  ideal 
whose  significance  and  scope  are  to  be  interpreted 
only  when  one  has  first  recognized  that  Jesus  sur- 
veys life  from  above  and  approaches  it  from  within. 
This  social  ideal,  which  presents  itself  continu- 
ously and  vividly  to  the  mind  of  Jesus,  is  summed 
up  in  that  phrase  which  occurs  more  than  a  hun- 
dred times  in  the  first  three  gospels,  —  the  "  king- 
dom of  heaven,"  or  the  "kingdom  of  God."  ^   From 

1  Noble  Lectures,  1898,  I.  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  "The  Message  of 
Christ  to  the  Individual  Man,"  p.  18.  Compare  also  the  sermon  of 
J.  H.  Newman,  "  Personal  Influence  the  Means  of  propagating  the 
Truth." 

*  John  xvii.  19. 

•  The  two  titles  appear  to  be  practically  identical  in  signification. 
Beyschlag,  "  New  Testament  Theology,"  I,  42,  "  That  both  expres- 
sions mean  the  same  thing  is  manifest  from  the  parallels  of  Matthew 


92      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  beginning  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  to  its  close, 
this  is  the  subject  of  his  prophecy,  parable  and 
prayer.  "Jesus,"  begins  the  gospel  of  Mark, 
"came  into  Galilee,  preaching  the  gospel  of  God 
and  saying.  The  time  is  fulfilled  and  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  at  hand."^  The  kingdom  was 
the  one  end  to  be  desired;  it  was  the  pearl  of 
great  price  for  which  all  else  might  be  sold;^ 
it  was  the  piece  of  money  to  find  which  the 
house  was  diligently  swept  ;^  it  was  to  be  the 
theme  of  daily  prayer  for  the  followers  of  Jesus : 
"Thy  kingdom  come."*  It  is  a  phrase  which, 
on  the  face  of  the  record,  is  often  obscure,  and 
which  in  different  passages  appears  to  have  in- 
consistent meanings.  The  kingdom  is  described 
as  both  a  present  and  a  future  state,  as  both  an 
inward  and  an  outward  condition.  Now  it  seems 
to  be  a  remote  and  glorious  consummation  of  the 
Messiah's  reign  in  the  day  of  the  last  things : 
"Then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man 
in  heaven :  and  then  shall  all  the  tribes  of  the 
earth  .  .  .  see  the  Son  of  man  coming  on  the 
clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory."* 
Again,  it  is  obviously  not  remote  and  supramun- 
dane,  but  near  and  of  this  world :  "  There  be 
some  here  of  them  that  stand  by,  which  shall  in 

on  the  one  hand  and  of  Mark  and  Luke  on  the  other."  For  pos- 
sible grounds  of  the  variation  in  use  see  the  interesting  note  in 
Wendt,  "  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  I,  370  flf. 

1  Mark  i.  14,  15.  2  Matt.  xiii.  46.  '  Luke  xv.  8. 

*  Matt  vi.  10.  *  Matt.  xxiv.  30. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  93 

no  wise  taste  of  death,  till  they  see  the  kingdom 
of  God  come  with  power."  ^  Yet  again,  it  is  a 
silent,  spiritual,  immanent  presence:  **The  king- 
dom of  God  Cometh  not  with  observation :  neither 
shall  they  say,  Lo,  here!  or.  There!  for  lo,  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."^ 

What  unity  of  teaching  is  it  possible  to  discover 
within  these  apparently  conflicting  and  incompat- 
ible aspects  of  the  kingdom  ?  ^  In  the  first  place, 
certain  difficulties  of  interpretation  may  be  re- 
moved by  recalling  the  circumstances  under  which 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  given.  The  phrase  was 
familiar  to  his  hearers.  It  summed  up  to  their 
minds  the  fulfilment  of  their  national  hopes  and 
of  their  Messianic  dreams.*  Yet  to  the  Hebrews 
themselves  it  had  become  a  confused  and  waver- 

*  Mark  ix.  i. 

*  Luke  xvii.  20,  21. 

*  The  history  of  modem  interpretations  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
kingdom  is  told  in  detail  by  Schnedermann,  "  Jesu  Verkiindigung 
und  Lehre  vom  Reiche  Gottes,"  I,  86  if.  The  conclusion  of  the 
author  which,  he  remarks  (s.  173),  "has  been  recognized  by  no 
other  inquirer,"  and  which  subordinates  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus,  seems  unlikely  to  obtain  acceptance;  e.g.  s. 
173,  "The  assumption  that  Jesus  laid  great  weight  on  the  idea  of 
the  kingdom  for  its  own  sake  is  wholly  unfounded  "  (aus  der  Luft 
gegriffen);  and  s.  195,  "The  conception  of  the  kingdom  lies,  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus,  in  the  Israelitic  background." 

*  Ex.  xix.  6  ;  Dan.  ii.  44.  See :  Wendt,  "  Teaching  of  Jesus," 
I,  174,  and  note;  Holtzmann,  "New  Testament  Theology,"  I, 
225  ff. ;  Stevens,  "  Theology  of  New  Testament,"  p.  28  ff.  ; 
Beyschlag,  "  New  Testament  Theology,"  I,  43  ;  and  the  detailed 
and  learned  survey  of  four  "  stadia  "  in  Jewish  thought  in  Toy, 
*•  Judaism  and  Christianity,"  1896,  303-371. 


94      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

ing  conception.  Sometimes  it  had  taken  the  form 
of  a  political  scheme  of  national  emancipation; 
sometimes  it  was  the  expression  of  a  religious 
dream  of  Messianic  glory.  Thus,  even  to  those 
who  were  looking  and  longing  for  the  kingdom 
of  God,  it  was  not  a  clearly  defined  and  specific 
hope.  On  this  flexible  phrase,  then,  with  its 
capacity  for  spiritualization,  Jesus  fastens  when 
he  desires  to  describe  his  mission.  He  knows 
that  his  conception  of  it  is  not  that  which  is 
popularly  current  among  his  people,  but  he  util- 
izes the  only  phrase  which  is  in  the  least  adequate 
for  his  teaching,  believing  that  the  kingdom  of 
which  he  speaks  is  not  only  in  no  way  contrary  to 
the  national  hope,  but  in  reality  represents  the 
interior  truth  of  that  national  ideal. 

One  misinterpretation  of  his  message  he  distinctly 
meets.  The  kingdom,  as  he  announces  it,  is  cer- 
tainly not  to  take  that  form  of  a  political  restoration 
to  which  many  of  his  contemporaries  had  degraded 
their  social  ideal.  The  blessings  of  that  kingdom 
are  not  for  the  great  or  powerful,  but  for  the 
humble  ministers  of  others'  needs.  "Whosoever 
therefore  shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child, 
the  same  is  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."^ 
**  Whosoever  would  become  great  among  you,  shall 
be  your  minister."  ^  "  My  kingdom,"  he  explicitly 
says,  "is  not  of  this  world;  "^  and  again,  "Take 
heed,  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and 

*  Matt  xviii.  4.  ^  Mark  x.  43.  *  John  xviii.  36. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  95 

the  leaven  of  Herod,"  ^  —  the  desire,  that  is  to  say, 
of  political  supremacy  or  of  party  rule.  ^ 

A  second  conception  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
current  in  the  time  of  Jesus  cannot  be  so  lightly 
dismissed.  It  is  that  of  an  apocalyptic  consumma- 
tion of  the  Messiah's  rule,  —  a  view  which  obviously 
prevailed  in  much  Jewish  literature  of  the  time,  and 
which  is  deeply  imbedded  in  the  gospel  story.  It 
has  been  held,  therefore,  with  ingenuity  and  learn- 
ing,^ that  Jesus  shared,  with  his  people  and  his  age, 
these  eschatological  ideals,  and  that  the  key  of  his 
teaching  concerning  the  kingdom  is  to  be  sought, 
not  in  his  more  spiritualized  sayings,  but  in  the 
apocalyptic  utterances  and  prophecies  of  the  gos- 

1  Mark  viii.  15. 

2  Wendt,  I,  364  flf.  ;  Beyschlag,  1, 47  ;  Shailer  Mathews,  "  Social 
Teaching  of  Jesus,"  45. 

8  This  view  has  been  elaborated,  with  variations  in  detail,  in  two 
prize  essays  of  the  Hague  Society  for  the  defence  of  the  Christian 
Religion,  by  Issel,  "  Die  Lehre  vom  Reiche  Gottes  im  N.  T.,"  1891 ; 
and  SchmoUer,  "  Die  Lehre  vom  Reiche  Gottes  in  den  Schriften  des 
N.  T.,"  1891  (s.  102  ff.);  and  in  the  more  famous  treatise,  confess- 
edly suggested  by  Schraoller,  of  Joh.  Weiss,  "  Die  Predigt  Jesu  vom 
Reiche  Gottes,"  1892.  See  the  summary  of  his  conclusions,  ss.  61, 
62 ;  and  his  intention,  announced  at  the  outset,  "  to  exhibit  the 
thoroughly  apocalyptic  and  eschatological  character  of  the  idea  of 
Jesus."  See  also,  of  the  same  tendency,  Bousset,  "  Jesu  Predigt  in 
ihrem  Gegensatz  zum  Judentum,"  1892  (s.  100  ff.);  Schnedermann 
(op.  cit.),  s.  190,  "  This  kingdom  of  God  is  in  no  sense  a  result  to  be 
achieved  (Aufgabe).  The  refutation  of  the  utterances  of  Ritschl 
to  this  effect  by  Haupt,  Kostlin,  SchmoUer,  J.  Weiss,  and  others,  is 
to  be  recognized  and  commended  as  an  important  achievement  of 
the  latest  inquiry.  Rather  it  is  a  free  gift  (Gabe)  as  SchmoUer  and 
J.  Weiss  have  made  plain." 


96      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

pels.  There  are,  beyond  doubt,  many  passages 
which  lend  themselves  to  this  view ;  and  the  method 
of  those  New  Testament  critics  who  interpret  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  in  its  relation  to  the  antecedent 
traditions  and  ideals  of  Hebrew  faith,  has  been  most 
illuminating  and  fruitful.  It  is  difficult,  however, 
to  subordinate  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  the  spiritual 
sayings  to  these  Hebraic  hopes.  In  disposing  of 
one  difficulty  of  interpretation  another  difficulty  i? 
introduced.  If  the  mind  of  Jesus  was  thus  su- 
premely concerned  with  an  apocalyptic  kingdom, 
how  can  he  have  referred  to  it  as  "  within  "  .?  To 
believe  that  the  spiritual  and  ethical  teaching  con- 
cerning the  kingdom  should  have  been  superim- 
posed by  the  followers  of  Jesus  on  the  view  really 
held  by  their  Master,  is  contrary  to  every  indication 
in  the  gospels  of  the  true  relation  between  Jesus 
and  his  disciples.  The  well-known  phrase  of  Mat- 
thew Arnold,  "  Jesus  above  the  heads  of  his  report- 
ers," is  one  of  the  safest  canons  of  the  New 
Testament  interpretation.  The  more  spiritual  and 
ethical  a  teaching  is,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  have 
come  from  the  Teacher's  lips.  Thus,  if  the  apoc- 
alyptic passages  are  to  be  accepted  at  all,  it  must 
at  least  be  in  connection  with  that  other  form  of 
proclamation  which  describes  the  kingdom  as  a 
spiritual  and  already  present  reality.  "  Blessed  are 
the  eyes  which  see  the  things  that  ye  see ;  "  ^  "  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  come  upon  you.'*^ 

1  Luke  X.  23. 

2  Matt  xii.  28.     So  with  much  force,  Erich  Haupt,  "  Die  escha- 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  9/ 

What  interpretation,  then,  shall  be  offered  of  this 
relationship  between  a  kingdom  which  is  at  hand 
and  a  kingdom  which  is  to  come  to  pass  in  the 
world  of  heaven  ?  Three  possibilities  have  had 
serious  consideration.  It  may  be,  in  the  first  place, 
suggested,  in  opposition  to  the  view  just  presented, 
that  it  is  the  apocalyptic  passages  which  are  super- 
added, and  that  they  represent  the  thought  of  the 
disciples,  derived  from  the  Hebrew  tradition,  rather 
than  the  mind  of  the  Master.^  Such  a  conclusion, 
however,  would  seem  to  be  the  last  resort  of  criti- 
cism. It  may  be,  indeed,  believed  that  to  many  a 
saying  of  Jesus  there  was  given  a  heightened  color 
through  the  report  of  evangelists  steeped  in  apoc- 
alyptic literature ;  but  to  eUminate  from  the  record 
all  anticipation  on  the  part  of  Jesus  of  a  future  con- 
summation is  to  reject  without  other  cause  large 
portions  of  the  narrative. 

tologischen  Aussagen  Jesu,"  1895,  s.  77  flf.,  "The  solution  of  the 
problem  appears  to  me  attained  only  when  our  inquiry  begins  at 
the  opposite  point  from  that  now  usually  occupied,  with  those  pas- 
sages in  which  the  kingdom  of  God  is  described  as  present.  .  .  . 
These  passages  form  the  interior  climax  of  the  message  of  Jesus. 
Here  he  shows  that  it  is  no  new  and  noble  Judaism  that  he  brings. 
The  chief  element  in  the  kingdom  of  God  —  communion  with  God, 
the  relation  of  children  to  a  Father  —is  a  present  possession." 

1  See  the  restrained  yet  candid  judgments  of  Toy,  "  Judaism  and 
Christianity,"  p.  260  ff.,  "  That  they  [the  eschatological  discussions] 
were  not  deHvered  by  Jesus  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  have  them 
may  probably  be  inferred  from  the  consideration  already  mentioned 
—  that  the  disciples  for  some  time  after  his  death  show  no  knowl- 
edge of  their  contents.  .  .  .  The  power  of  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity was  in  his  moral  personality  and  in  his  conception  of  a 
thoroughly  spiritual  society." 
H 


98    JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

A  second  possibility  which  deserves  considera- 
tion is  that  the  thought  of  Jesus  himself  had  a 
gradual  development  during  his  ministry,  and 
passed  by  degrees  from  the  external  to  the  spirit- 
ual view  of  the  kingdom,  so  that,  while  at  the 
beginning  of  his  teaching  he  shared  the  popular 
Messianic  ideal  and  preached  a  kingdom  which 
was  to  appear  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  he  became 
by  degrees  aware  that  this  consummation  was  not 
to  happen,  and  that  the  real  kingdom  was,  even 
while  he  taught,  being  spiritually  realized  in  the 
hearts  that  accepted  him.^  This  view,  however,  is 
also  not  without  grave  difficulties.  There  are, 
indeed,  indications  that,  as  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
proceeded,  the  meaning  and  end  of  it  grew  clearer 
and  more  commanding  to  his  mind.  The  hopes 
with  which  no  doubt  he  began,  of  finding  accept- 
ance among  his  people,  turned  out  to  be  vain ;  the 
cross  disclosed  itself  to  him  as  an  inevitable  end ; 
and  at  last  he  "set  his  face,"  as  we  read,  "to  go 
to  Jerusalem."  ^  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  brief 
limits  of  his  ministry  give  scanty  room  for  any 
radical  reconstruction  of  his  thoughts  concerning 
the  kingdom.  Indeed,  his  first  teachings  recog- 
nized as  fully  as  his  later  utterances  its  spiritual 
nature.     What  is  called  his   temptation  was  the 

1  Beyschlag, " Leben  Jesu,"  I,  229  flF., "The  probability  is  that  he 
came  gradually  to  think  of  himself  as  the  deliverer  promised  by  the 
prophets "  ;  and  the  criticism  of  Wendt,  I,  380  ff.  For  the  con- 
verse of  this  view,  see  Toy,  p.  352. 

^Lukeix.  51. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  99 

deliberate  putting  away  by  him  of  material  tests 
and  rewards.  If  any  deepening  spirituality  can 
be  traced  in  his  language  as  it  proceeds,  it  is  much 
more  probably  to  be  traced  to  his  gradual  instruc- 
tion of  the  disciples  in  the  profounder  view  than 
to  a  gradual  illumination  of  his  own  mind.  There 
are,  in  fact,  many  indications  which  suggest  a 
deepening  and  spiritualizing  of  the  idea  of  the 
kingdom,  not  so  much  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  as  in 
the  minds  of  his  hearers  and  followers.  It  may 
well  have  been  to  them,  at  the  first  hearing,  diffi- 
cult to  realize  that  Jesus  was  enriching  an  old 
phrase  with  a  new  signification,  and  his  bold  use 
of  traditional  language  may  have  been  accepted 
by  them,  as  it  has  been  accepted  by  many  modern 
scholars.  By  degrees,  however,  it  may  have  come 
to  pass  that  one  after  another,  in  recalling  their 
impressions  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  became  aware 
of  the  deeper  meaning  which  at  first  they  had 
missed,  until  at  last  the  very  phrase,  "  The  king- 
dom of  God,"  is  in  the  fourth  gospel  lost  in  the 
larger  conception  of  "life"  and  "eternal  life." 
This  gradually  dawning  consciousness  of  the  inte- 
rior meaning  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  seems  to 
find  its  fulfilment  in  the  mind  of  Paul.  To  him 
the  spiritual  view  has  become  the  only  conceivable 
one :  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  .  .  .  ,"  he  says 
without  qualification,  "  righteousness  and  peace  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  ^ 

We  are  brought,  then,  to  the  apparently  para- 

1  Rom.  xiv.  17. 


lOO      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

doxical  conclusion  that  the  kingdom  of  God  had 
to  Jesus  both  significations,  that  of  a  future  and 
that  of  a  present  state,  that  of  a  heavenly  and  that 
of  an  earthly  society.  This  apparent  paradox, 
however,  disappears  when  we  consider  the  concep- 
tion of  the  kingdom  in  the  light  of  the  two  prin- 
ciples which  we  have  already  laid  down.  Jesus, 
as  we  have  seen,  views  the  world  from  above.  He 
sees  in  it  the  movement  of  the  life  of  God  on  the 
souls  of  men.  Wherever,  then,  this  spirit  of  God 
finds  welcome  in  a  human  life,  there,  immediately, 
unostentatiously,  yet  certainly,  the  kingdom  of 
God  has  already  come;  and  when  at  last  that 
same  spirit  shall  penetrate  the  whole  world,  then 
there  will  result  a  social  future  which  language 
itself  is  hardly  rich  enough  to  describe.  This  is 
no  inconsistency  or  confusion  of  thought.  The 
thought  of  Jesus  considers  both  what  is  and  what 
is  to  be ;  the  present  potentiality  of  the  kingdom 
and  its  future  realization.  Here  is  the  significance 
of  the  parables  of  the  leaven  ^  and  of  the  mustard 
seed.2  The  kingdom  has  as  its  very  essence  the 
capacity  for  expansion.  It  has  as  real  an  exist- 
ence in  the  seed  as  in  the  tree,  but  not  less  real 
in  the  future  glory  than  in  the  present  seed.  It 
is  hidden  in  the  leaven,  but  it  is  not  less  demon- 
strably to  be  revealed  in  the  mass.  The  social 
ideal,  then,  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  to  be  interpreted 
only  through  his  religious  consciousness.    He  looks 

^Matt.  xiii.  33  ;  Luke  xiii.  21. 

2  Matt.  xiii.  31,  32 ;  Mark  iv.  31,  32 ;  Luke  xiii.  19. 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  lOI 

on  human  life  from  above,  and,  seeing  it  slowly 
shaped  and  purified  by  the  life  of  God,  regards 
the  future  of  human  society  with  a  transcendent 
and  unfaltering  hope.  In  the  purposes  of  God  the 
kingdom  is  already  existent,  and  when  his  will 
is  done  on  earth,  then  his  kingdom,  which  is  now 
spiritual  and  interior,  will  be  as  visible  and  as  con- 
trolling as  it  is  in  heaven.^ 

'  On  the  other  hand,  Jesus  approaches  life  from 
within,  through  the  inspiration  of  the  individual. 
Here  is  his  answer  to  that  question  which  the 
disciples  themselves  asked,  "When  shall  these 
things  be  ?  and  what  shall  be  the  sign  of  thy  com- 
ing ? "  2  The  kingdom  is  to  come,  answers  Jesus, 
not  by  outward  force  or  social  organization  or 
apocalyptic  dream,  but  by  the  progressive  sancti- 
fication  of  individual  human  souls.^    And  does  one 

1  Holtzmann, "  New  Testament  Theology,"  I,  200,  "The  kingdom 
of  God  i3  both  a  gift  to  be  received  and  a  result  to  be  achieved  " 
(ebensosehr  Gabe  wie  Aufgabe) .  So  Harnack,  "  History  of 
Dogma,"  I,  62,  "Jesus  announced  the  kingdom  of  God  ...  as 
a  future  kingdom,  and  yet  it  is  presented  in  his  preaching  as  pres- 
ent ;  as  invisible,  and  yet  it  was  visible  —  for  one  actually  saw 
it."  B.  Weiss,  '« Biblical  Theology  of  New  Testament "  (tr.  1882), 
I,  72,  "  It  is  this  interpretation  of  present  and  future,  it  is  this  cer- 
tainty of  its  completion  at  every  stage  of  the  empirical  realization 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  has  become  an  inalienable  moment 
of  the  Christian  consciousness,  in  consequence  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus."  See  also  Stevens,  "  Theology  of  the  New  Testament,"  1899, 
37  fif.  Holtzmann,  s.  208,  collects  in  a  note  a  long  series  of  defini- 
tions of  the  kingdom. 

2  Matt.  xxiv.  3. 

*0n  the  kingdom  as  spiritual,  see  Bruce,  "The  Kingdom  of 
God,"  4th  ed.,  1891,  Ch.  I;  "Christ's  Idea  of  the  Kingdom,"  p.  58, 


I02      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

ask  again  what  is  to  be  the  motive  of  this  personal 
sanctification  ?  It  is  to  be  found,  according  to 
Jesus,  in  the  thought  of  the  kingdom.  On  the 
one  hand  the  kingdom  is  an  unfolding  process  of 
social  righteousness,  to  be  worked  out  through 
individuals;  on  the  other  hand,  the  individual  is 
prompted  to  his  better  life  by  the  thought  of 
bringing  in  the  kingdom.  Thus  the  individual 
and  the  kingdom  grow  together.  The  individual 
discovers  himself  in  the  social  order,  and  the  social 
order,  like  that  "  whole  creation  "  of  which  Saint 
Paul  wrote,  **  waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons 
of  God."i 

In  other  and  more  modern  language,  the  social 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  is  this, — that  the  social' 
order  is  not  a  product  of  mechanism  but  of  per- 
sonality, and  that  personality  fulfils  itself  only  in 
the  social  order.  Thus  the  social  philosophy  of 
Jesus  is  but  another  statement  of  his  philosophy 
of  religion.  Speaking  as  a  religious  teacher,  Jesus 
says  that  the  life  of  man  is  discovered  to  itself 
in  the  service  of  God.  The  son  comes  to  himself 
when  he  says,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father. "^ 
His  sense  of  dependence,  in  the  language  of  Schlei- 
ermacher,  is  the  beginning  of  his  religious  life. 
Religion  is  freedom  from  the  world  through  de- 

"In  all  probability  the  title  was  used  alternatively  [kingdom  of 
God,  or  of  heaven]  by  Jesus,  for  the  express  purpose  of  lifting  the 
minds  of  the  Jewish  people  into  a  brighter  region  of  thought ";  and 
on  the  kingdom  as  social,  see  Mathews,  "  Social  Teaching  of  Jesus," 
Ch.  Ill,  and  his  "  History  of  New  Testament  Times,"  1899,  p.  171  ff. 
1  Rom.  viii.  19.  2  Luke  xv.  18. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  IO3 

pendence  upon  him,  "Whose  service,"  in  the  beau- 
tiful words  of  the  English  Prayer-book,  *'is  perfect 
freedom."  ^  The  same  spiritual  process  is  to  be 
traced  in  the  social  teaching  of  Jesus.  Again,  the 
individual  is  the  point  of  departure,  but  he  finds 
his  own  self-reaUzation  only  in  the  service  of  the 
social  world.  As  has  been  lately  said,  "  The  true 
individuality  is  to  be  found  in  a  fully  organized 
society,  and  a  worthy  society  in  a  fully  developed 
individual."  2  The  world  of  social  ethics,  then, 
lies  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  like  an  island  in  the 
larger  sea  of  the  religious  life ;  but  the  same  prin- 
ciple of  service  controls  one,  whether  he  tills  the 
field  of  his  island  or  puts  forth  to  the  larger 
adventure  of  the  sea.  Shall  we,  then,  say  that 
Jesus  was  an  individualist,  or  shall  we  say  that  in 

1  Schleiermacher,  " Christlicher  Glaube,"  1801, 1,  19,  "The  com- 
mon element  in  all  the  varied  expressions  of  piety  which  distinguish 
religion  from  all  other  feelings  —  that  is  to  say,  the  essence  of  reli- 
gion—  is  this,  that  we  are  conscious  of  ourselves  as  absolutely 
dependent,  or  in  other  words,  in  relation  to  God."  In  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  sense  of  freedom  with  the  sense  of  dependence,  the 
two  German  tendencies  in  the  philosophy  of  religion,  proceeding 
from  Hegel  and  Schleiermacher,  meet ;  Pfleiderer,  "  Die  Religion," 
1869,  I,  78,  and  more  distinctly  in  his  "  Religionsphilosophie," 
1878,  s.  298,  "  In  Gott  eins  mit  der  Weltordnung  und  durch  Gott 
frei  von  der  Weltschranke  .  .  .  das  ist  das  Wesen  der  Religion  " ; 
Biedermann,  '*  Dogmatik,"  1869,  s.  30,  "  The  content  of  the  religious 
process  in  the  spiritual  life  of  man  is  the  freedom  of  the  finite  spirit 
from  finite  conditions  in  an  infinite  dependence";  Lipsius,  "Dog- 
matik," 1876,  s.  28,  "Religion  is  the  reconciliation  of  the  longing 
for  freedom  with  the  sense  of  dependence." 

^  New  Worlds  September,  1898,  Henry  Jones,  "  Social  and  Indi- 
vidual Evolution." 


104      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

any  sense  of  the  word  he  was  a  socialist?  Was 
his  mind  directed  toward  personal  education  or 
toward  social  reform  ?  His  method,  we  must 
answer,  admits  of  no  such  antagonism  between 
spiritual  life  and  the  social  good.  The  one  is  his 
means,  the  other  is  his  end.  The  first  word  of  his 
teaching  is  character,  the  second  is  love.  Love 
has  its  watchword,  "  for  their  sakes  " ;  and  char- 
acter its  command,  "  sanctify  thyself  "  ;  and  the 
Christian  social  law  is  fulfilled  in  the  whole  saying 
of  Jesus,  **for  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself."^ 

Such,  in  their  most  general  statement,  seem  to 
be  the  social  principles  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
.  —  the  view  from  above,  the  approach  from  within, 
and  the  movement  toward  a  spiritual  end ;  wisdom^^ 
personality,  idealism;  a  social  horizon,  a  social 
power,  a  social  aim.  The  supreme  truth  that  this 
is  God's  world  gave  to  Jesus  his  spirit  of  social 
optimism ;  the  assurance  that  man  is  God's  instru- 
ment gave  to  him  his  method  of  social  opportun- 
ism; the  faith  that  in  God's  world  God's  people* 
are  to  establish  God's  kingdom  gave  him  His 
social  idealism.  He  looks  upon  the  struggling, 
chaotic,  sinning  world  with  the  eye  of  an  unclouded 
religious  faith,  and  discerns  in  it  the  principle  of 
personality  fulfilling  the  will  of  God  in  social  ser- 
vice. It  is  for  later  chapters  to  indicate  how  these 
social  principles  may  be  applied  in  detail  to  spe- 
cific social  problems  of  the  modem  world.    For  the 

1  John  xvii.  19. 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  IO5 

present,  let  us  note  in  advance  the  general  effect 
which  they  may  have  on  one's  total  view  of  social 
life. 

There  has  probably  never  been  an  age  in  hu- 
man history  which  could  compare  with  the  pres- 
ent time  in  its  capacity  for  appreciating  these 
principles  which  we  seem  to  discover  beneath  the 
words  and  conduct  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  social 
question,  as  we  saw  at  the  outset,  is  an  all-environ- 
ing and  all-engrossing  interest.  Even  those  who 
are  not  consciously  concerned  with  it  are  none 
the  less  involved  in  it.  Indeed,  this  indifferent 
and  neutral  element  in  modern  social  life  makes' 
one  of  the  most  threatening  elements  of  the  mod- 
ern social  question.  Those,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
recognize  the  present  situation  are  often  much  bur- 
dened and  perplexed  by  it.  Some  of  them  are 
shut  in  by  the  multitude  of  details  involved  in 
social  duty.  Their  special  work  is  at  best  but  a 
fragment,  and  they  often  wonder  how  it  can  have 
a  place  in  the  whole  movement  of  social  progress. 
At  times  it  seems  to  them  that  they  are  doing 
more  harm  than  good,  and  that  perhaps  it  would 
be  better  to  do  nothing.  They  are  like  detach- 
ments of  an  army,  fighting  in  the  skirmish  line, 
without  knowing  how  their  service  counts  in  the 
general's  plan.  They  are  oppressed  with  a  sense 
of  incapacity.  They  observe  that  the  philosophy 
of  society  which  is  most  current  at  the  present 
time  is  a  philosophy  of  materialism.  To  it  the 
fundamental  problems  are  economic  ;  in  its  teach- 


I06      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

ing  the  reconstruction  of  society  proceeds  from 
below,  and  the  ideals  of  an  age  are  the  corollaries 
of  its  industrial  order.  To  such  observers,  then, 
the  social  question  brings  with  it  a  new  wave  of 
social  pessimism,  as  if  the  problems  of  modern 
society  were  too  bewildering  and  portentous  to 
give  any  ground  for  courage  or  hope. 

To  this  frame  of  mind,  hemmed  in,  disheart- 
ened, vainly  attempting  the  interpretation  of  life 
from  below,  there  offer  themselves  the  social  prin- 
ciples of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  In  the  first  place,  i 
he  contributes  a  new  point  of  view,  —  the  view 
from  above,  the  sense  of  horizon,  the  capacity 
for  comprehensiveness  and  wisdom.  Passionate 
activity,  beautiful  self-sacrifice,  indignant  emotions, 
—  all  these  are  abundantly  offered  in  our  day  for 
social  service ;  but  what  a  lack  there  is  of  breadth 
of  view,  of  social  courage,  of  a  justified  and  stable 
optimism !  How  are  these  qualities  to  supplant 
the  narrowness  and  irritation  and  despair  which 
make  social  hope  appear  a  Utopian  dream }  They 
are  to  come,  answers  Jesus,  through  an  application 
to  the  social  question  of  the  spirit  of  rational  reli- 
gion. What  the  modern  reformer  needs  is  the 
capacity  to  look  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own 
special  work,  and  to  perceive  its  relations,  its 
causes,  and  its  effects,  as  a  part  of  the  movement 
of  a  Divine  plan.  Nothing  could  be  more  contrary 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  than  the  vulgar  notion 
that  he  diverts  attention  from  this  world  and  fixes 
it  on  another.     His  ministry  is  for  this  life,  quite 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  10/ 

as  much  as  for  any  world.  "  Thy  kingdom  come," 
he  prays,  "on  earth."  It  is,  however,  the  point  of 
view  which  transforms  the  scene.  The  landscape 
is  more  truly  studied  from  the  hilltop  than  from 
the  underbrush  below.  The  general,  standing  apart 
from  the  battle,  surveys  it  more  completely  than 
the  rank  and  file  in  the  midst  of  the  smoke.  Pre- 
cisely thus  the  spiritual  companionship  of  Jesus 
with  the  life  of  God  gives  him  perspective  and 
hope  in  his  view  of  the  world  below.  He  looks 
at  life  from  above,  and  its  confusion  and  conflict 
fall  into  order  and  reveal  their  purpose  as  parts  of 
the  large  intention  of  the  Father.  He  looks  over 
the  partitions  of  social  provincialism,  and  sees  the 
dimensions  and  unity  of  the  world. 

When  one  asks,  then,  as  many  reformers  are 
tempted  to  ask,  "What  part  has  religion  in  these 
practical  affairs.?  What  right  have  I  to  pause 
in  my  generous  activity  and  contemplate  life 
in  the  spirit  of  Jesus .? "  the  first  —  though  not 
the  complete  —  answer  to  such  self-inquiry  is 
this,  —  that  the  capacity  for  detachment  and  the 
contemplation  of  practical  affairs  from  the  reli- 
gious point  of  view  are  precisely  what  make  prac- 
tical activity  most  patient,  comprehensive,  and 
wise.  The  special  weakness  of  modern  social 
activity  is  its  impulsiveness,  its  fickleness,  its 
fragmentary  interest,  its  specialized  enthusiasm. 
What  the  work  of  philanthropy  and  the  reform 
of  industry  need  is  the  larger  horizon  of  the  view 
from  above.     Jesus  heals  the  demoniac  boy  the 


I08      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

more  gladly  and  firmly  because  he  has  just  been 
on  the  mount  of  transfiguration.^  It  is  the  same 
with  many  a  devoted  and  overburdened  modem 
life  as  it  turns  to  heal  the  social  distresses  of  the 
time.  The  patience  and  courage  which  administer 
wise  relief  come  of  the  antecedent  transfiguration 
of  Ufe  through  communion  with  God.  Many  a 
modern  life,  if  asked  to  define  the  significance  and 
usefulness  of  its  religious  experience,  would  have 
little  more  to  say  than  this :  "  My  faith  in  God 
makes  me  able  to  do  my  work.  It  rescues  me 
from  narrowness  and  hopelessness,  and  gives  me 
persistence  and  courage  from  day  to  day.  It 
preserves  for  me  the  large  view  of  my  duty,  and 
sustains  me  when  my  immediate  results  are  bit- 
terly meagre  and  small.  In  short,  it  is  what 
stands  between  me  and  overwhelming  weariness  or 
social  despair."  The  just  still  live  by  their  faith. 
The  view  of  life  from  above  gives  a  rational  cour- 
age for  the  service  of  life  below. 

The  second  aspect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is 
equally  applicable  to  modern  life.  Next  to  nar- 
rowness of  view,  what  is  the  special  peril  of  the 
present  social  movement }  It  is,  beyond  doubt, 
its  externalism.  Wherever  one  looks,  he  sees  prog- 
ress defined  in  terms  of  organizations,  schemes, 
majorities,  social  machinery.  Industrial  life  has 
reached  a  degree  of  complexity  in  which  the  in- 
dividual worker  is  little  more  than  one  cog  in  a 
vast  machine.     Political  methods  have  magnified 

1  Matt.  xvii.  15-18. 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  lOQ 

enormously  the  function  of  government.  Offi- 
cialism supplants  more  and  more  the  demand 
for  individual  initiative;  until,  as  has  been  said 
of  German  militarism,  every  effort  seems  now 
devoted  to  the  making  of  a  man  into  a  machine. 
The  creed  of  scientific  socialism  is  frankly  and 
aggressively  external.  Its  programme  has  rarely  a 
word  to  say  of  any  change  of  character ;  it  makes 
no  appeal  to  the  working-man  to  cultivate  prudence, 
self-restraint  or  patience.  On  the  contrary,  these 
qualities,  which  have  been  generally  recognized  as 
virtues,  often  seem  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  work- 
ing-man's aim.  Let  him  demand  more  pay,  it  is 
urged;  more  comfort,  better  external  conditions; 
and  then  these  changes  in  the  outward  industrial 
order  will  of  themselves  develop  the  inward  capac- 
ity to  use  it.  Even  religion  itself  runs  grave  risk 
of  being  institutionalized  and  externalized  out  of 
all  self-recognition.  Organization  and  ritual,  ec- 
clesiastical machinery,  leagues  and  associations,  — 
all  these  external  methods  have  attained  such 
terrific  dimensions  and  importance  that  it  has  come 
to  appear  an  elementary  Christian  duty  for  per- 
sons to  become,  as  Stevenson  remarked,"  joiners  "; 
and  it  is  even  announced  as  one  conspicuous  mark 
of  Christian  progress  that  on  a  certain  day,  under 
one  organized  arrangement,  some  millions  of  associ- 
ated believers  will,  in  sixteen  different  languages, 
beseech  the  throne  of  grace. 

What  has  Jesus  Christ  to  say  to  this  marvellous 
development  of   social  machinery.?    He  has  no 


no      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

direction  to  give  and  no  criticism  to  offer.  It 
may  well  be  an  admirable,  as  it  is  certainly  an  in- 
evitable, phase  in  the  evolution  of  society.  The 
methods  of  the  **  great  industry "  are  transform- 
ing the  habits  of  the  Church,  as  they  have  already 
transformed  the  habits  of  the  business  world.  All 
these  subjects  lie  outside  of  the  sphere  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  He  is  not  a  social  mechanic  or  a  social 
organizer.  The  complexity  of  the  modem  world 
presents  a  problem  of  external  arrangement  which 
was  never  before  his  mind,  and  with  which,^even  if 
it  had  been  set  before  his  mind,  he  would  probably 
not  have  felt  himself  deeply  concerned.  Jesus, 
however,  turns  to  the  other  factor  of  social  life, 
whose  significance  the  tendency  to  extemalism 
gravely  obscures.  It  is  quite  true,  as  modern 
teachers  are  urging  upon  us,  that  environment 
modifies  personality,  thai  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions now  exist  which  make  a  healthy  human 
life  very  hard  to  live,  that  the  reorganization  of 
society  is  a  pressing  task,  and  that  such  im- 
provement in  organization  may  fortify  the  indi- 
vidual life,  as  a  single  soldier's  courage  is  stronger 
when  he  is  conscious  of  an  organized  army  at  his 
back.  The  teaching  of  Jesus,  however,  is  of  the 
person  who  can  modify  his  environment,  of  the 
man  who  transforms  conditions,  of  the  courage 
which  is  nurtured  in  solitude  and  is  not  alone,  be- 
cause the  Father  is  with  it.  In  short,  Jesus 
approaches  the  social  question  from  within ;  he 
deals  with  individuals ;  he  makes  men.     It  is  for 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  III 

others  to  serve  the  world  by  organization;  he 
serves  it  through  inspiration.  It  is  for  others  to 
offer  what  the  theologians  once  called  a  scheme  of 
salvation ;  the  only  salvation  Jesus  offers  is  through 
saviours,  and  saviours  are  those  who  have  sancti- 
fied themselves  for  others'  sakes. 

Does  this  mean  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is 
indifferent  to  external  methods  of  reform,  and  is 
absorbed,  as  many  of  his  followers  have  been,  in 
mystical  communion  with  God,  and  in  the  saving 
of  one's  own  soul  ?  Was  Jesus  unaware  that  there 
may  be  circumstances  in  life  in  which  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  save  one's  soul?  Would  he,  if  he 
could  survey  the  life  of  the  modern  world,  take  no 
interest  in  such  bettering  of  external  conditions  ? 
Would  he  expect  to  communicate  spiritual  inspira- 
tion where  people  are  living,  male  and  female,  ten 
in  a  room,  or  where  a  family  of  four  are  subsisting 
on  the  casual  earnings  of  one?  Is  he  so  feeble  a 
sentimentalist  as  to  think  that  good  will  come  from 
within  if  the  way  is  not  prepared  for  it  from 
without  ?  We  shall  soon  see  how  far  from  such 
indifference  to  external  conditions  is  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  and  how  radical  are  his  instructions  con- 
cerning the  environment  of  life.  If  the  primary 
aim  of  Jesus  is  to  set  forth  the  principle  of  per- 
sonality, to  awaken  the  higher  life  of  persons,  to 
make  a  man  "  come  to  himself,"  then  no  social 
conditions  have,  under  his  teaching,  any  right  to 
exist  which  can  obstruct  or  which  even  fail  to 
encourage  this  end  of  individual  growth,  oppor- 


112      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

tunity,  initiative  and  character.  All  this  we  shall 
observe  as  each  successive  aspect  of  the  social 
order  claims  our  attention.  Yet  within  this  prob- 
lem of  the  better  social  order  lies  always  the 
problem  of  the  better  man.  "  There  is  no  politi- 
cal alchemy,"  said  Mr.  Spencer,  "by  which  you 
can  get  golden  conduct  out  of  leaden  instincts."  ^ 
It  is  vain  to  imagine  that  a  change  of  external 
conditions  will  of  itself  bring  about  a  change  of  the 
human  heart.  The  fact  is  that  conditions  which 
seem  extraordinarily  favorable  may  become  the 
very  cause  of  the  wreck  of  character  and  of  the 
weakening  of  the  will,  and  that  conditions  which 
seem  severe  and  meagre  have  in  them  often  the 
making  of  men.  Many  a  phase  of  civilization  in 
which  prosperity  has  Seen  most  freely  lavished  on 
a  people  has  turned  out  to  be  an  epoch  of  political 
or  moral  decline ;  and  many  of  the  fairest  blooms 
of  strenuous  and  fragrant  living  have  sprung  from 
a  bare  rock  like  that  of  Athens,  or  from  an  obscure 
province  Hke  that  of  Galilee.  The  method  of  ex- 
ternalism,  in  short,  deals  at  most  with  but  one  half 
of  the  social  question.  It  is  a  great  and  honorable 
task  which  seems  offered  to  the  present  genera- 
tion, —  the  task  of  perfecting  social  organization, 
the  levelling  and  broadening  of  the  way  by  which 
the  better  Hfe  of  the  future  may  have  its  entrance 
into  the  world ;  but  if  there  is  no  better  life  to 
enter ;  if  after  crying,   "  Prepare  ye,  prepare  ye 

1  Essay  on  "  The  Coming  Slavery,"  Popular  Scientific  Monthly^ 
April,  1884. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING  II 3 

the  way  of  the  Lord ! "  we  wait  in  vain  to  see  the 
Son  of  man  approach,  —  with  what  a  sense  of 
futility  and  purposelessness  are  we  left,  with  our 
organizations  and  schemes  and  committees,  all 
prepared  for  a  day  of  triumph  which  does  not 
come! 

Indeed,  complexity  of  organization  brings  with 
it  a  new  and  threatening  peril.  What  shall  it 
accomplish  if  the  organization  becomes  the  tool 
of  designing  men ;  what  gain  shall  there  be  in  the 
municipalization  of  industry  if  the  municipality  is 
the  instrument  of  a  "  boss";  wherein  is  the  mechani- 
cal perfection  of  charity  effective  if  it  is  in  the  hands 
of  stupid  officials  ?  The  more  perfected  the  social 
machinery  becomes,  the  better  trained  must  be  its 
engineers.  The  external  order  calls  for  the  inward 
control.  The  teaching  of  Jesus,  then,  does  not 
pretend  to  cover  the  whole  range  of  the  social  ques- 
tion. It  recognizes  that  the  problem  of  adjusting 
social  environment  must  be  a  new  problem  with 
each  new  age ;  it  concerns  itself,  therefore,  with 
the  making  of  persons  who  shall  be  fit  to  deal 
with  the  environment  which  each  new  age  in  its 
turn  presents.  "Cleanse  first,"  says  Jesus,  "the 
inside  of  the  cup  and  of  the  platter."  ^  "  For  what 
doth  it  profit  a  man,  to  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
forfeit  his  life.? "2 

In  Mrs.  Browning's  dramatic  contrast  between 
the  mission  of  the  reformer  and  the  vocation  of 
the  poet,  she  sets  forth  this  Christian  doctrine  :  — 
1  Matt,  xxiii.  26.  ^  Mark  viii.  36. 

I 


114      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

"  I  too,"  she  says, 

"  have  my  vocation,  —  work  to  do,  .  .  • 
Most  serious  work,  most  necessary  work, 
As  any  of  the  economists.     Reform, 
Make  trade  a  Christian  possibility. 
And  individual  right  no  general  wrong. 
.  .  .  What  then,  indeed, 
If  mortals  are  not  greater  by  the  head 
Than  any  of  their  prosperities  ?  .  .  .    It  takes  a  soul 
To  move  a  body :  it  takes  a  high-souled  man 
To  move  the  masses,  even  to  a  cleaner  sty. 

...  Ah!  your  Fouriers  failed 
Because  not  poets  enough  to  understand 
That  life  develops  from  within."  ^ 

Still  more  dramatically,  Jesus  himself,  in  that  pro- 
found experience  which  we  call  the  temptation,  was 
directly  approached  by  the  spirit  of  externalism. 
"  If  thou  art  the  Son  of  God,"  said  the  tempter, 
"command  that  these  stones  become  bread. "^  How 
modern  the  proposal  sounds !  It  is  precisely  the 
use  of  power  which  the  modern  agitator  would  call 
most  beneficent  —  the  utilization  of  spiritual  forces 
for  economic  production.  It  might  seem,  indeed, 
to  such  an  agitator  nothing  short  of  cruel,  in  a 
world  where  there  was  hunger,  to  use  power  for 
anything  else  than  to  make  more  bread.  Jesus, 
however,  approaches  the  social  question  from 
within.  He  has  nothing  to  say  against  bread- 
making  ;  in  another  place  he  feeds  a  great  multi- 
tude. When,  however,  it  is  a  question  of  the 
1  «♦  Aurora  Leigh,"  Book  II.  *  Matt.  iv.  3. 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  II 5 

supreme  need  of  life,  he  knows  that  there  are 
necessities  more  profound  than  hunger.  "  Man," 
he  says,  "shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God."^  The  fundamental  craving  of  human  life, 
he  well  knows,  —  and  many  a  human  being,  though 
oppressed  by  poverty  and  Ifunger,  still  feels  the 
deeper  need,  —  is  for  capacity,  inspiration,  regen- 
eration, personality,  power. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  the  social  question  to 
which  this  second  principle  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
recalls  our  attention.  The  fact  that  he  approaches, 
first  of  all,  the  individual  indicates  how  large  a  part 
of  social  ills  proceeds,  in  his  opinion,  not  from 
social  maladjustments,  but  from  the  fault  of  human 
beings  themselves,  in  their  own  interior,  misdirected 
and  redeemable  lives.  One  need  not  here  strike  a 
balance  between  the  external  and  internal  causes 
of  social  wrongs.  When  the  bacteria  of  disease 
fasten  on  a  human  body,  it  is  not  possible  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  poison  from  without  or  the  sus- 
ceptibility from  within  is  chiefly  responsible ;  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  much  of  the  external  change 
and  decay  comes  from  internal  predisposition,  and 
that  the  constitution  may  be  in  many  instances 
fortified  against  such  disease.  In  the  same  way 
it  may  be  affirmed  of  a  vast  amount  of  social  suf- 
fering, that  its  cause  and  prevention  are  to  be  in 
large  degree  determined  by  an  inquiry  into  one's 
own  heart,  and  that  the  beginning  of  a  great  part 
1  Matt.  iv.  4. 


Il6      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

of  social  amelioration  is  in  the  recognition  of  that 
personal  responsibility  which  the  Bible  does  not 
hesitate  to  call  sin.  We  have  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  the  language  of  externalism,  that  there 
may  seem  something  antiquated  and  theological  in 
this  reference  of  social  wrongs  to  so  personal  a 
cause  as  sin.  We  are  much  more  apt  to  trace  the 
evils  of  society  to  unfavorable  environment,  to 
imperfect  legislation,  or  to  the  competitions  of 
industry;  and  it  is  quite  true  that  these  causes, 
and  many  more,  contribute  to  the  social  question. 
No  tendency  in  modern  life,  however,  is  more 
'  destructive  to  social  progress  than  the  tendency  to 
weaken  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  for 
social  imperfection,  and  to  fix  the  blame  on  unpro- 
pitious  circumstances.  The  obvious  fact  is,  that 
for  a  very  large  part  of  social  disorder,  the  chief 
responsibility  lies  in  the  passions  and  ambitions  of 
individual  men,  and  that  no  social  arrangement  can 
guarantee  social  welfare,  unless  there  is  brought 
home  to  vast  numbers  of  individuals  a  profounder 
sense  of  personal  sin.  A  social  curse,  for  instance, 
like  that  of  the  drink  habit  is  legitimately  attacked 
by  legislation  and  organization ;  but  these  external 
remedies  will  be  applied  in  vain  if  there  is  any 
slackening  of  the  conviction  that,  with  most  per- 
sons, drunkenness  is  not  a  misfortune  for  which 
society  is  responsible,  but  a  sin  for  which  indi- 
viduals are  responsible.  Or,  again,  the  problem 
of  charity  will  remain  an  ever  increasing  problem 
of  relief  and  alms  unless  there  is  included,  within 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  II 7 

the  problem  of  relief,  the  stirring  of  individual 
capacity  to  do  without  relief,  and  to  enlarge  the 
range  of  initiative  and  self-respect.  Or,  once 
more,  the  problem  of  industry  will  open  into  no 
permanent  adjustment  between  capital  and  labor, 
so  long  as  capitalists  are  rapacious  and  merciless, 
and  laborers  are  passionate  and  disloyal.  To 
whatever  phase  of  the  social  question  we  turn, 
we  observe,  within  the  sphere  of  social  arrange- 
ments, the  interior  problem  of  the  redemption  of 
character.  Much  social  suffering  is  due  to  the 
social  order ;  but  much,  and  probably  more,  is  due 
to  human  sin. 

To  this  point,  then,  of  personal  responsibility 
Jesus  addresses  much  of  his  teaching.  He  will 
have  no  part  in  the  limp  fatalism  which  regards 
character  as  the  creature  of  circumstances.  He 
makes  a  masculine  appeal  to  a  man's  own  will. 
He  allows  no  shirking  of  the  truth.  The  pub- 
lican whom  he  commends  throws  no  blame  on 
his  vocation  or  his  circumstances:  "God,"  he  says, 
"  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner ! "  ^  The  prodigal 
does  not  return  to  his  father  with  an  indictment 
against  the  social  conditions  which  have  prevailed 
in  the  far  country  of  riotous  living ;  he  returns 
with  the  manly  and  frank  confession,  "  Father,  I 
have  sinned."  ^  There  are,  perhaps,  profounder 
aspects  than  this  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  sin, 
as  there  have  been  many  technical  and  unreal 
ways  of  expressing  that  doctrine ;  but  this  bearing 

1  Luke  xviii.  13.  ^  Luke  xv.  18. 


Il8      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

of  the  doctrine  of  sin  on  social  life  has  been  re- 
served for  the  present  age  to  appreciate,  and  a  time 
when  the  social  question  is  the  centre  of  human 
interest  is  a  time  when  we  need  more  than  ever 
to  recall  the  personal  causes  of  social  progress 
and  decay.  The  chief  difficulty  with  modern 
social  life,  as  we  shall  repeatedly  see,  is  not  a 
mechanical  difficulty,  but  a  moral  fault.  It  is  quite 
true,  that  one  legitimate  prayer  of  the  Christian 
reformer  in  the  present  age  may  be :  "  Create  a 
better  social  order,  O  God,  and  renew  a  right  rela- 
tion between  various  classes  of  men ;  "  but  a  much 
deeper  and  worthier  petition  of  one  who  desires 
to  shape  the  social  order  of  the  time  would  be,  as 
it  was  of  old :  "  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O 
God ;  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me."  ^  The 
teaching  of  Jesus  meets  the  need  of  the  time 
when  he  thus  approaches  the  social  question  from 
within. 

Persons,  then,  with  horizon  of  view  and  with 
interior  initiative,  —  these  are  the  instruments  on 
which  Jesus  depends  to  correct  the  narrowness  and 
the  outwardness  of  the  social  movement.  What  is 
it,  one  finally  asks,  which  shall  create  in  persons 
this  scope  of  social  purpose  and  this  capacity  for 
social  service  ?  To  answer  this  question  we  must 
recall  the  third  and  the  most  characteristic  social 
principle  of  Jesus,  the  principle  of  the  kingdom. 
What  delivers  one  from  small  views  of  social  duty 
and  from  externalism  of  social  method  is,  accord- 
1  Ps.  li.  lo. 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF    THE   TEACHING  I IQ 

ing  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  the  devotion  of  the' 
individual  to  a  spiritual  ideal  of  social  life.  The 
thought  of  the  kingdom  makes  the  man,  as  the  ser- 
vice of  the  man  in  its  turn  makes  the  kingdom. 
Among  the  harassing  incidents  of  routine,  incom- 
pleteness, and  misdirected  effort  which  abound  in 
modern  tasks  of  social  service,  the  secret  of  effec- 
tiveness and  courage,  according  to  Jesus  Christ, 
lies  with  the  idealist.  Such  a  man,  as  Matthew 
Arnold  says  of  Sophocles,  "  sees  life  steadily  and 
sees  it  whole."  He  finds  himself  because  he  has 
found  an  end  to  which  he  can  commit  himself.  He 
is  obedient  to  the  heavenly  vision ;  he  sanctifies 
himself  for  others'  sake ;  and  wisdom,  sanity,  and 
power  are  given  to  him  as  he  thus  gives  himself  to 
the  kingdom. 

How  far  such  language  seems  to  carry  us  from 
the  prevailing  temper  of  the  modern  social  ques- 
tion !  What  room  is  there,  it  may  be  asked,  for 
the  idealist  among  scenes  of  destitution  and  over- 
crowding, of  starvation  wages  and  industrial  slav- 
ery, where  the  masses  of  men  are  fighting,  not 
for  ideals,  but  for  daily  bread  ?  Remote,  however, 
as  a  spiritual  ideal  appears  to  be  from  the  in- 
tensely practical  world  of  social  service,  it  is  none 
the  less  certain  that  thf^  lagk  of  such  an  ideal  is  the 
chief  curse  of  modern  social  life,  and  that  the  un- 
spiritual  character  of  the  ends  proposed  as  substi- 
tutes for  such  idealism  constitute  their  chief  social 
peril.  What  is  it  which  we  must  admit  to  be  the 
most  depressing  and  heart-breaking  quality  of  the 


120      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

ordinary  work  of  average  modern  life  ?  It  is, 
beyond  doubt,  its  deadening,  downward-looking, 
dehumanizing  dulness,  its  mechanical  round  of 
unilluminated  and  uninspired  routine.  It  is  this 
which  brings  with  it  the  sense  of  limitation,  insig- 
nificance, and  purposelessness,  which  converts  men 
into  machines  and  robs  them  of  vitality,  imagi- 
nation, faith,  and  hope.  The  high  walls  of  their 
vocation  shut  in  the  narrow  road  of  their  lives  and 
shut  out  all  vistas  beyond,  until  they  trudg;e  like 
beasts  of  burden  rather  than  walk  like  children  of 
God.  And  what  is  it  that  can  restore  color  and 
meaning  to  such  a  life  }  Much,  no  doubt,  can  be 
accomplished  by  improving  conditions,  by  the  lev- 
elling of  the  walls  of  vocation,  by  escape  from 
mechanism.  Yet  this  sense  of  imprisonment  in 
one's  life  is  by  no  means  a  consciousness  of  those 
alone  whose  conditions  are  most  deplofable.  The 
prosperous  quite  as  much  as  the  poot  are  thus  en- 
snared. Despondency  and  enmd  are  social  dis- 
eases which  afflict  the  luxurious  quite  as  much  as  \ 
they  do  the  hand-working  class.  Behind  the  prob- 
lem, then,  of  improving  social  conditions  lies  the 
problem,  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  of 
interpreting  life  as  it  is,  and  as  it  must  be,  under 
all  conditions,  and  of  illuminating  that  routine 
which  is  inevitable  with  a  sense  of  significance, 
unity,  intention,  and  worth. 

This  transfiguration  of  common  life  is  what 
Jesus  offers  to  men  in  his  vision  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.     He  looks  upon  the  striving,  struggling 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING  121 

world  of  social  movement  as  contributing  to  that 
social  intention.     He  sees  the 

"  One  far-off,  divine  event 
Toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

Neither  the  turbulence  of  the  stream,  nor  its 
reactionary  eddies,  make  him  forget  the  ocean  to 
which  it  flows.  The  pettiness,  the  toil,  the  rou- 
tine, the  insignificance  of  life,  —  even  its  pain  and 
bitterness,  —  are  swept  into  the  movement  of  his 
mighty  hope,  and  become  a  part  of  its  greatness 
instead  of  an  ob^acle  to  its  course.  Thus  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  gives  meaning  to  many  an 
obscure  life,  caught  in  the  perplexity  of  the 
modern  world.  It  offers  to  such  a  life,  not  first  of 
all  a  new  set  of  circumstances,  but  a  new  insight 
into  and  through  its  circumstances.  A  man  cries 
out  for  the  interpretation  of  his  experience,  and 
finds  it  as  he  prays,  "  Thy  kingdom  come."  It  is 
his  social  ideal  which  makes  a  place  for  his  per- 
sonal service.  His  insignificant  task  gets  a  mean- 
ing because  it  is  taken  up  into  the  Divine  plan. 
What  he  regards  as  his  successes  and  what  he 
calls  his  failures  may  be  of  equal  importance  in 
the  vast  campaign  of  God.  He  regains  composure, 
self-respect,  and  courage,  because  he  has  enlisted 
in  that  service.  It  is  not  his  universe.  He  is  set, 
as  a  man  under  authority,  to  do  his  duty  in  the 
ranks.  Not  for  him,  indeed,  the  glory  of  a 
triumphant  commander,  but  for  him  perhaps  at 
last  the  commander's  summons  :  "Well  done,  good 


122      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

and  faithful  servant :  thou  hast  been  faithful  over 
a  few  things,  .  .  .  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
lord ! "  1 

The  significance  of  such  a  social  ideal  may  be 
indicated  from  quite  another  point  of  view.  We 
turn  to  the  substitute  now  most  confidently  pro- 
posed for  these  spiritual  interpretations  of  social 
life,  and  at  once  observe  that  here  also  the  spirit  of 
idealism  is  the  effective  motive  power.  Nothing 
is  more  pathetic  than  to  see  an  ideal  created  out  of 
ends  which  are  essentially  unspiritual  and  material, 
and  to  observe  this  fictitious  idealism  exciting  a 
passionate  and  self-sacrificing  loyalty.  The  social 
end  proposed  by  the  philosophy  of  socialism  may 
be  in  one  sense  described  as  an  ideal ;  for  it  is,  at 
least,  a  visionary,  remote,  and  Utopian  end.  In 
the  more  accurate  sense,  however,  it  is  as  far  as 
possible  from  a  spiritual  ideal ;  it  is  a  sheer  mate- 
rial, external  rearrangement  of  possessions  and 
facilities.  Yet  how  devoted  and  profound  an 
attachment  is  felt  by  millions  of  plain  people  for 
this  economic  creed!  It  is  an  emotional  loyalty 
which,  we  may  be  sure,  has  been  awakened,  not 
by  a  programme  of  industry,  but  by  the  ideal 
elements  which  have  become  associated  with  it; 
by  such  maxims  as  "  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity  " ; 
by  the  sense  of  justice,  and  the  hope  of  a  golden 
age  of  righteousness ;  in  short,  by  those  aspects  of 
the  socialist  gospel  which  it  has  in  common  with 
the  Christian  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

,         ^  Matt.  XXV.  21. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING        123 

It  is  by  no  means  true,  then,  that  the  modern 
world  has  outgrown  the  idealist.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  his  habit  of  mind  which  makes  persuasive  the 
doctrines  of  industrial  revolution.  Indeed,  it  may 
not  improbably  come  to  pass,  as  we  shall  later  in 
more  detail  point  out,  that  the  modern  world  may 
have  to  take  its  choice  of  idealisms  —  on  the  one 
hand,  the  materialized  hope  which  inspires  the 
socialist  propaganda ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
spiritual  vision  which  inspired  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  One  thing  only,  among  the  many  uncer- 
tainties of  the  social  future,  may  be  regarded  as 
reasonably  sure,  —  that  no  social  teaching  will  be 
likely  to  win  the  hearts  of  men  which  is  not  in 
some  way  colored  by  an  idealist's  faith.  The  things 
that  are  unseen  are,  after  all,  the  things  for 
which  human  hearts  most  care.  "  Where  there  is 
no  vision,  the  people  perish."  The  permanent 
influence  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  on  the  minds  of 
the  human  race  was  assured  when  he  made  it  his 
first  duty  and  highest  joy  to  proclaim  the  coming 
of  an  ideal  order  of  Divine  righteousness  and  truth, 
and  "  came  into  Galilee  preaching  the  good  news 
of  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Such  appears  to  be  the  relation  of  the  social 
principles  of  Jesus  to  the  social  questions  of  the 
present  day.  His  contribution  is  not  one  of 
social  organization  or  method,  but  of  a  point  of 
view,  a  way  of  approach,  and  an  end  to  attain. 
His  social  gospel  is  not  one  of  fact  or  doctrine, 
but  one  of  spirit  and  aim.     If  it  is  true  that  the 


124      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

social  movement  is  obstructed  by  narrowness  of 
view  and  lacks  wisdom  and  horizon,  if  it  is 
gravely  tempted  by  externalism  and  needs  to  be 
recalled  to  the  problem  of  the  individual,  if  its 
ideals  are  unspiritual  and  fictitious,  then  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  has  something  still  to  offer  to  social 
life  even  among  conditions  which  he  could  not 
have  foreseen,  and  for  which,  therefore,  he  could 
have  made  no  regulative  law.  We  are  to  consider 
in  detail  the  bearing  of  this  teaching  on  various 
forms  of  social  organization  presented  by  ^he 
modern  world.  There  are,  in  particular,  three 
such  groups  of  relationship  which  lie,  like  con- 
centric circles,  round  the  individual  life.  Closest 
to  him  is  the  circle  of  the  family,  the  interior  and 
elementary  social  group ;  beyond  this  circle  is  the 
larger  group  of  a  community  of  families,  compre- 
hending diverse  conditions  of  prosperity  and  pov- 
erty, and  presenting  to  the  individual  the  problems 
of  the  rich  and  of  the  poor ;  and  still  again,  round 
both  these  circles  sweeps  with  a  larger  radius  the 
industrial  order  of  the  present  age.  Each  of  these 
circles  of  social  life  holds  a  social  question  which 
is  in  one  aspect  wholly  unprecedented  and  purely 
contemporaneous.  The  institution  of  the  family, 
the  distribution  of  property,  and  the  organization  of 
industry  are  all  at  the  present  time  subjects  of 
fresh  consideration,  and  conceivably  open  to  radi- 
cal change.  Of  such  problems,  therefore,  con- 
sidered as  temporary  social  arrangements,  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  given  as  it  was   to  a  wholly 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES    OF   THE   TEACHING        12$ 

different  age,  can  have  little  to  say.  The  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  however,  concerns  itself  with  the 
principles  which  these  social  phenomena  illus- 
trate. He  views  them  from  above,  in  the  light 
of  his  religious  vocation  ;  he  approaches  them  from 
within,  through  the  development  of  personality; 
he  judges  them  in  their  end,  as  contributory  to 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Into  each  circle  of  social 
life  he  enters  with  these  social  principles,  and  it  is 
as  one  who  from  within  fits  his  key  into  door  after 
door  and  passes  out  into  the  open  air. 

In  short,  we  are  brought  to  the  point  where  social, 
organization  and  social  inspiration  —  the  mass  and 
the  person  —  meet  as  factors  in  social  progress. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus,  being  chiefly  concerned 
with  the  latter  factor,  may  perhaps  seem  to  be  of 
decreased  significance  under  the  conditions  of  the 
present  age.  Never  was  a  time  which  appeared 
more  wholly  given  over  to  the  principle  of  organi- 
zation. It  is  an  age  of  mass-meetings,  majori- 
ties, democracies,  combinations,  machinery.  What 
scope  is  there  left,  it  may  be  asked,  for  the  free 
growth  and  creative  service  of  the  individual } 
The  fact  is,  however,  that  the  growth  of  organiza- 
tion, instead  of  displacing  the  principle  of  inspi- 
ration, only  provides  a  larger  opportunity  for  its 
effectiveness.  The  two  factors  of  social  move- 
ment are  not  substitutes  for  each  other ;  they  are 
mutually  dependent  on  each  other,  as  wings  which 
on  opposite  sides  sustain  a  bird's  strong  flight. 
Personality  finds  in  organization   the   multiplica- 


126      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

tion  of  power;  organization,  the  more  complex 
it  grows,  makes  greater  demands  on  personality. 
Modern  machinery  calls  for  better  training  in  its 
engineers ;  modern  industry  requires  more  skill 
in  its  mechanics ;  modern  politics,  statesmanship, 
administration,  have  become  more  and  more  de- 
pendent upon  competent  men  who  shall  control 
and  direct  the  mighty  power  which  modern  organi- 
zation has  devised.  All  things,  said  the  apostle, 
wait  for  the  entrance  into  organization  of  the 
power  of  personality :  "  The  earnest  expectation 
of  the  creation  waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the 
sons  of  God."  ^ 

When,  therefore,  we  admit  that  the  chief  social 
contribution  of  Jesus  is  the  production  of  spiritual 
personality,  we  do  not  dismiss  his  teaching  as 
unimportant  for  the  modern  world.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  turn  to  him  with  fresh  attention,  as 
perhaps  providing  that  element  of  social  progress 
of  which  the  modern  world  stands  most  in  need. 
If  it  is  true  that  in  every  form  of  social  activity 
the  cry  of  the  time  is  for  personality ;  if  we  are  in 
danger  of  being  overwhelmed  by  social  mechanism 
and  robbed  of  social  power;  if  in  the  tendencies  of 
the  time 

"  The  individual  withers  and  the  age  is  more  and  more  " ; 

if  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  itself,  with  its  vast 
.development  of  organization,  is  in  danger  of  being 
deserted  by  the  active  and  thoughtful  because  it 

1  Rom.  viii.  19. 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF   THE   TEACHING        12/ 

does  not  seem  to  be  the  instrument  of  wisdom  and 
of  power,  —  then,  even  if  Jesus  makes  no  important 
contribution  to  the  external  factors  of  social  prog- 
ress, it  may  be  a  fitting  time  to  recall  the  teacher 
who  said,  "I  am  come  that  they  may  have  life, 
and  may  have^it  more  abundantly." 

Among  many  evidences  that  the  modern  world 
is  recognizing  afresh  the  significance  of  person- 
ality, the  most  notable  is  the  renewal  of  general 
interest  in  the  personality  of  Jesus  himself.  Here 
was  a  person  who,  in  the  modern  sense,  accom- 
plished little,  was  but  in  the  slightest  degree  an 
administrator  or  organizer,  and  satisfied  himself 
with  the  general  statement  of  his  mission,  "  I  am 
the  Way  and  the  Truth  and  the  Life."  Yet 
through  all  the  uncertainties  of  Christian  theology 
and  all  the  conflicts  of  Christian  ecclesiasticism, 
there  has  disclosed  itself  to  the  world  an  influence 
proceeding  from  him  which  turns  out  to  be  that 
which  the  world  most  desires,  —  the  influence  of 
a  person  viewing  life  from  above,  judging  it  from 
within,  and  directing  it  to  its  spiritual  end.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  signs  of  the  times 
that,  while  the  doctrines  which  centre  about  Christ 
have  to  great  multitudes  almost  lost  their  mean- 
ing, his  personality  has  acquired  fresh  loyalty  and 
homage.  People  who  are  absorbed  in  the  ways 
of  modern  life  feel  a  fresh  accession  of  spiritual 
loyalty  to  one  who,  in  the  midst  of  these  tangled 
interests,  proves  to  be  a  wise  and  trustworthy 
guide.     In  a  great  orchestra,  with  all  its  varied 


128      JESUS   CHRIST    AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

ways  of  musical  expression,  there  is  one  person 
who  performs  on  no  instrument  whatever,  but  in 
whom,  none  the  less,  the  whole  control  of  harmony 
and  rhythm  resides.  Until  the  leader  comes,  the 
discordant  sounds  go  their  various  ways ;  but  at 
his  sign  the  tuning  of  the  instruments  ceases  and 
the  symphony  begins.  So  it  is  with  the  spiritual 
leadership  of  Jesus  Christ.  Among  the  conflict- 
ing activities  of  the  present  time  his  power  is  not 
that  of  one  more  activity  among  the  rest,  but  that 
of  wisdom,  personality,  idealism.  Into  the  midst 
of  the  discordant  efforts  of  men  he  comes  as  one 
having  authority ;  the  self-assertion  of  each  instru- 
ment of  social  service  is  hushed  as  he  gives  his 
sign ;  and  in  the  surrender  of  each  life  to  him  it 
finds  its  place  in  the  symphony  of  all 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  CONCERNING  THE  FAMILY 

Cfjrre  bas  a  marriage  in  (JTana  of  ©alike ;  .  ♦  »  anU  Sesus  also 
teas  ijiUUen,  anK  ijis  Uisciples,  to  tlje  marriafle. 

The  social  problem  of  the  family,  it  need  hardly 
be  said,  is  not  comprehended  by  practical  consid- 
erations of  domestic  duty.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
behavior  within  the  domestic  group,  but  a  ques- 
tion of  the  continued  existence  of  this  form  of 
social  relation.  Even  thus  defined,  the  problem 
of  the  family  usually  confronts  one  at  such  close 
range  that  its  real  dimensions  and  significance  are 
not  easily  appreciated.  Before  approaching,  then, 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  on  the  subject,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  indicate  briefly  some  aspects  of  the 
question  which  may  seem  to  be  remote  from  the 
immediate  issues  of  the  present  age. 

The  problem  first  presents  itself  when  we  be- 
come aware  that  the  coherence  and  permanence  of 
family  life  are,  under  existing  social  conditions, 
seriously  threatened.  Domestic  instability,  it  is 
observed,  tends  in  a  most  startling  manner  to  be- 
come an  epidemic  social  disease.  The  number  of 
divorces  annually  granted  in  the  United  States  of 
America  is,  it  appears,  increasing,  both  at  a  rate 
unequalled  in  any  other  civilized  country,  and  at 
K  129 


130      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

a  constantly  accelerating  rate.^  In  all  Europe, 
Canada,  and  Australia  in  1889  the  total  number  of 
divorces  granted  was  20, 1 1 1  ;  in  the  United  States 
in  this  same  year  it  was  23,472.  In  1867  there 
were  granted  in  the  United  States  9937  divorces ; 
in  1886  there  were  granted  29,535.  The  increase 
of  population  in  those  twenty  years  was  60  per 
cent;  the  increase  of  divorces  was  156  per  cent. 
The  total  of  married  couples  living  in  the  United 
States  to  one  couple  divorced  was  in  1870,  664,  and 
in  1880,  481.  The  ratio  of  marriages  celebrated  to 
one  couple  divorced  was  :  in  Massachusetts  in  1867 
forty-five  to  one,  and  in  1886  thirty-one  to  one ;  in 
Illinois  in  1867  twenty  to  one,  and  in  1886  thirteen 
to  one.  It  may  even  be  computed  ^  that  if  the 
present  ratio  of  increase  in  population  and  in  sepa- 
ration be  maintained,  the  number  of  separations  of 
marriage  by  death  would  be  at  the  end  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  less  than  the  number  of  separations 
by  divorce. 

Many  causes  contribute  to  this  result.  Loose- 
ness in  the  law  of  divorce  and  in  its  administra- 
tion, diversity  of  law  in  the  different  States,  and 
an  almost  equal  looseness  in  the  law  of  marriage, 
—  all  have  their  part  in  creating  a  situation  in 
which,  as  has  been  remarked,  less  care  is  observed 

1  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  "  Report  on  Marriage 
and  Divorce,"  1889;  "Columbia  College  Studies,"  I,  i;  Willcox, 
"The  Divorce  Problem  ;  a  Study  in  Statistics,"  1891  ;  Mayo-Smith, 
••Statistics  and  Sociology";  A.  P.  Lloyd,  "A  Treatise  on  the  Law 
of  Divorce,"  1889. 

2  Willcox  (op.  cit.),  p.  12. 


THE   FAMILY 


131 


in  arranging  a  contract  of  marriage  than  is  involved 
in  a  contract  concerning  a  horse  or  a  piece  of  land.^ 
This  situation,  which  has  become  so  familiar  as  to 
make  the  instability  of  the  marriage  tie  a  matter 
even  of  current  jest,  is  in  itself  sufficient  to  con- 
stitute a  problem  of  extreme  gravity,  and  it  is  most 
natural  that  many  communions  of  the  Christian 
Church  are  urging  upon  the  consciences  of  their 
adherents  the  insidious  nature  of  the  social  peril 
involved,  and  are  procuring  more  stringent  legis- 
lation, both  of  State  and  Church,  concerning  mar- 
riage and  divorce. 

In  these  practical  efforts  for  domestic  integrity, 
however,  there  is  in  reality  involved  a  much  larger 
issue  than  at  first  appears.  It  is,  in  fact,  nothing 
less  than  an  issue  between  two  theories  of  the 
marriage  tie,  —  the  conception  of  it  as  a  temporary 
contract,  involving  the  interests  of  those  who  are 
known  as  "  the  parties  concerned  " ;  and  the  con- 
ception of  it  as  a  social  institution,  involving  the 
fabric  of  the  social  order.  Indeed,  the  family  is 
but  one  element  in  a  general  struggle  for  existence 
of  two  types  of  civilization,  one  dominated  by  an 
interest  in  the  development  of  the  individual,  the 
other  characterized  by  a  concern  for  the  social 
order.     The  first  of  these  conceptions  of  society 

^Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1888,  F.  G.  Cook,  "The  Marriage 
Celebration  in  the  United  States";  S.  W.  Dike,  "Reports  of  Na- 
tional Divorce  Reform  League";  Political  Science  Quarterly, 
December,  1889,  "Statistics  of  Marriage  and  Divorce";  C.  F. 
Thwing,  "The  Family  :  an  Historical  and  Social  Study";  C.  D. 
Wright,  "  Practical  Sociology,"  1899,  pi  151  ff. 


132      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

has  for  a  long  period  controlled  English  thought. 
**  The  movement  of  progressive  societies,"  said 
Sir  Henry  Maine,  "has  been  uniform  in  one 
respect.  Through  all  its  course  it  has  been  dis- 
tinguished by  the  gradual  dissolution  of  family 
dependency  and  the  growth  of  individual  obliga- 
tion in  its  place.  The  individual  is  steadily  sub- 
stituted for  the  family  as  the  unit  of  which  civil 
law  takes  account."  ^  This  substitution  has  been 
for  several  generations  the  key  of  English  jurispru- 
dence, philosophy,  and  economics,  as  well  as  of  the 
religious  life  and  thought  of  Protestantism.^  The 
second  conception  of  society,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  come  to  its  full  expression  within  the  present 
generation.  It  takes  fresh  account  of  the  stability 
and  progress  of  the  social  order.  It  is  illustrated  by 
the  mass  of  new  legislation  which  deals  with  ques- 
tions of  social  welfare ;  by  the  new  expansion  of 
philosophy  into  problems  of  social  structure,  evo- 
lution, and  obligation ;  by  the  transition  of  eco- 
nomic science  from  issues  of  individual  competition 
and  harmonies  of  self-interest  to  the  adjustments 

1  Maine,  "Ancient  Law,"  3d  Amer.  ed.,  1878,  p.  163;  so  also 
Horace  Bushnell,  "  Christian  Nurture,"  1 871,  p.  91,  "  All  our  modem 
notions  and  speculations  have  taken  on  a  bent  toward  individual- 
ism." Compare,  "The  Message  of  Christ  to  Manhood,"  Noble 
Lectures,  1899;  H.  C.  Potter,  "The  Message  of  Christ  to  the 
Family,"  p.  193. 

^  So  of  the  Catholic  judgment  of  Protestantism,  "  Life  of  Father 
Hecker,"  N.  Y.,  1894,  "Protestantism  is  mainly  unsocial,  being  an 
extravagant  form  of  individualism.  Its  Christ  deals  with  men  apart 
from  each  other  and  furnishing  no  cohesive  element  to  humanity." 


THE   FAMILY  1 33 

of  associated  industry;  and,  finally,  by  the  new 
emphasis  of  Christian  theology  upon  the  organic 
life  of  the  Church  or  of  the  world. 

In  the  midst  of  this  conflict  of  tendencies  in 
civilization  stands  the  problem  of  the  family.  If 
the  individual  is  the  end  for  which  social  life 
exists,  if  it  is  the  "parties  concerned"  alone  who 
are  to  be  considered  in  a  case  of  marriage,  then 
the  legislation  of  self-interest,  which  takes  ac- 
count of  nothing  more  than  the  happiness  or  even 
the  whims  of  individuals,  will  be  set  to  make 
and  break  this  contract.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
marriage  is  an  elementary  expression  of  organic 
social  life,  a  witness  of  that  social  continuity 
which  is  coming  to  be  recognized  in  the  Church, 
the  industrial  order,  and  the  State;  or,  to  say 
the  same  thing  in  the  language  of  Christian 
philosophy,  —  if  the  individual  comes  to  his  self- 
realization  only  in  and  through  his  service  of  the 
social  order, — then  the  integrity  of  the  family,  as 
the  most  elementary  group  of  social  life,  will  be 
reverently  guarded  and  stringently  secured.  In 
the  issue,  then,  between  a  reversion  of  social  type 
to  the  individualism  which  is  elsewhere  outgrown, 
and  the  safe-guarding  of  the  social  organism  in  its 
most  elementary  form,  lies  the  first  aspect  of  the 
problem  of  the  family. 

Even  this  conflict  of  contemporary  types,  seri- 
ous as  it  is,  does  not  present  to  us  the  problem 
of  the  family  in  its  full  significance.  Behind  this 
direct  attack  of  sheer  self-interest  on  the  integ- 


134      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

rity  of  the  domestic  group,  there  lie  more  subtle 
perils  which  can  be  appreciated  only  when  one 
recalls  the  history  and  evolution  of  the  institution 
of  the  family.  Here  is  a  social  group  which,  in 
its  present  form,  is  by  no  means  an  original  and 
outright  gift  to  the  human  race,  but  is  the  product 
of  a  vast  world-process  of  social  evolution,  through 
which  various  types  of  domestic  unity  have  been 
in  turn  selected  and,  as  it  were,  tested,  until  at 
last  the  fittest  has  survived.  From  this  point  of 
view,  the  problem  of  the  family  is  not  merely  a 
contemporary  issue  between  expediency  and  ideal- 
ism, but  is  one  element  in  the  vastly  larger  prob- 
lem of  human  progress  and  destiny ;  and  one's 
judgment  concerning  the  place  and  future  of  the 
family  is  determined  by  observing  the  gradual 
processes  of  social  selection  through  which,  in  the 
history  of  the  human  race,  the  modern  form  of  the 
family  has  been  by  slow  degrees  evolved.  Here, 
at  last,  we  meet  in  its  full  scope  and  social  impor- 
tance the  problem  with  which  the  divorce  courts 
and  the  ecclesiastical  councils  are  trying  to  deal; 
and  here  also  we  meet  one  of  the  most  curious 
chapters  of  modern  research,  which  has  come  to 
play  a  most  unexpected  part  in  practical  discus- 
sions.^ 

1  Westermarck,  "  The  History  of  Human  Marriage,"  2d  ed. 
1894;  Lubbock,  "Origin  of  Civilization,"  etc.,  3d  ed.,  1879; 
McLennan,  "Studies  in  Ancient  History,"  1886;  Starcke,  "The 
Primitive  Family,"  1889;  Schurman,  "The  Ethical  Import  of 
Darwinism,"  1887,  Ch.  VI ;  Coulanges,  "The  Ancient  City,"  1874, 
Book  IL 


THE   FAMILY  1 35 

The  first  aspect  of  this  historical  evidence  to 
win  attention  was  formulated  in  the  so-called  "  Pa- 
triarchal Theory."     In  the  social  life  of  ancient 
Rome,  and  in  many  indications  of  social  conditions 
in  ancient  Israel,  it  was  observed  that  the  family 
was  the  unit  from  which  national  coherence  was 
derived,  and  that  this  unit  was  perpetuated  through 
the  supremacy  of  the  oldest  male.     Thus  the  patri- 
archal  theory  seemed   the   key   of   the   primitive 
history  of   the   family.       Through  the   expansion 
of  the  family  group  there  appeared  to  be  evolved 
the  clan,  the  tribe,  the  nation,  and  the  authority 
of  the  father  became  in  turn  that  of  the  chief,  the 
ruler,  the  king.     It  is  not  easy  to  overestimate  the 
importance  of  the  emphasis  thus  laid  on  the  place 
of  the  family  in  human  history.     "  The  unit  of  an 
ancient  society,"  in  the  familiar  words  of  Sir  Henry 
Maine,  "was  the  Family,  of  a  modern  society  the 
Individual."  ^    Social  progress  proceeds,  not  through 
relations  of  isolated  atoms,  but  through  the  multi- 
plication of  organized  cells ;  not  through  associa- 
tion of  individuals,  but  through  the  perpetuation  of 
families.     "A  cohesive  family,"  says  Mr.  Bagehot, 
"  is  the  best  germ  for  a  campaigning  nation.  .  .  . 
Nothing  of  this  is  possible  in  loosely  bound  family 
groups."  2    Yet  the  patriarchal  theory,  illustrated 
as  it  was  by  the  more  familiar  types  of  ancient 
civilization,   has   not  only   had   enormous    expan- 
sion, but  has  been  in  important  respects  supple* 

1  Maine,  "Ancient  Law,"  3d  Amer.  ed.,  1878,  p.  I2I. 
2 Bagehot,  "Physics  and  Politics,"  Ch.  Ill,  p.  517. 


136      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

merited  and  corrected  by  the  more  extended  study 
of  primitive  society.  It  remains  true  that  the 
family  is  the  unit  of  civilization,  but  it  is  also 
true  that  this  unit  has  had  its  own  evolution,  so 
that  the  family  is  not  only  a  cause  of  modern 
society,  but  is  in  its  turn  an  effect  of  ancient 
society.  Human  relationships,  it  is  in  the  first 
place  pointed  out,  were  probably,  even  under  the 
rudest  conditions,  not  the  promiscuous  relations  of 
a  herd,  but, — as  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  higher 
mammals,  —  a  relation  of  pairing  animals,  so  that 
even  in  the  most  primitive  society,  either  through 
force,  or  jealousy,  or  common  possessions,  or  the 
care  of  children,  or  necessities  of  self-defence,  a 
more  or  less  permanently  associated  group-life  was 
maintained.  "  We  may  indeed  conclude,"  said  Mr. 
Darwin,  "from  what  we  know  of  the  jealousy  of 
all  male  quadrupeds,  that  promiscuous  intercourse 
in  a  state  of  nature  is  extremely  improbable."  ^ 

What  was  it,  then,  that  gave  to  this  pairing 
group  its  original  coherence  and  continuity  ?  The 
most  striking  suggestion  which  has  been  made  in 
answer  to  this  question  is  that  of  Mr.  John  Fiske, 
in  his  discussion  of  the  physiological  conditions  of 
human  infancy.^  The  young  of  most  higher  ani- 
mals, Mr.  Fiske  reminds  us,  are  at  birth  able  to 

1 "  Descent  of  Man,"  pp.  590,  591. 

2 This  epoch-making  doctrine  was  first  expounded  in  "Cosmic 
Philosophy,"  1875,  II,  363;  reappears  in  "The  Destiny  of  Man," 
1889,  p.  57;  and  is  finally  described  in  autobiographical  form  iu 
"A  Century  of  Science,"  1899,  p.  100  ff. 


THE   FAMILY  1 37 

care  for  themselves  ;  while  the  human  infant  must 
be  cared  for  through  months  of  helplessness.  This 
prolongation  of  infancy  brings  with  it  the  genesis 
of  sociality.  It  bridges  the  gulf  which  seems  to 
divide  the  human  from  the  brute  world.  It  gives 
a  profound  meaning  to  the  phenomenon  of  help- 
less babyhood.  "  From  of  old  we  have  heard  the 
monition,  *  except  ye  be  as  babes,  ye  cannot  enter 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  The  latest  science  now 
shows  us  —  though  in  a  very  different  sense  of  the 
words  —  that,  unless  we  had  been  as  babes,  the 
ethical  phenomena  which  give  all  its  significance 
to  the  phrase  '  kingdom  of  heaven '  would  have 
been  non-existent  for  us." 

Still  more  significant  for  the  philosophy  of  the 
family  have  been  the  later  researches  of  the  eth- 
nologists. Turning  from  the  comparatively  ad- 
vanced social  conditions  indicated  by  the  Roman 
or  Hebrew  literature  to  more  primitive  social 
types,  these  students  of  Aryan  tribes  and  of 
North  American  aborigines  discover  in  the  be- 
ginnings of  human  society  a  far  more  varied  and 
more  curious  series  of  domestic  relationships  than 
the  patriarchal  theory  covers.  The  family,  it 
appears,  which  is  to  be  the  unit  of  further  civili- 
zation, has  emerged  into  its  present  form  through 
various  experimental  types,  assuming  all  possible 
variations  of  grouping,  until  the  fittest  to  survive 
had  been  attained.  First,  out  of  the  original  rela- 
tion of  pairing  animals  there  comes  into  view  a 
domestic  unity  and  continuity  represented  by  the 


138      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

woman,  who  with  her  children  creates  a  more  or 
less  coherent  social  group  among  wandering  and 
predatory  males.  The  matriarchal  domestic  type 
precedes,  as  a  rule,  the  patriarchal ;  children  be- 
long, first  of  all,  to  the  mother's  stock  ;  polyandry 
appears  to  be  more  primitive  than  polygamy.  It 
is  a  type  which  still  survives  in  many  an  Oriental 
tribe  and  many  an  Indian  tradition,  and  it  may 
even  be  suggested  that  this  primitive  institution 
of  the  practical  supremacy  of  the  wife  is  not  with- 
out its  survivals  in  the  administration  of  many  a 
modern  home.  Again,  in  this  dim  chapter  of 
social  evolution,  as  possessions  multiply  and  the 
competition  for  wives  becomes  keen,  the  unity 
of  the  family  is  determined,  in  many  tribes,  not 
by  reference  to  the  woman,  but  by  the  supremacy 
of  the  man.  Perhaps  the  series  of  incidents  sug- 
gested by  McLennan  occurs :  first,  in  a  state  of 
constant  warfare,  the  neglect  of  female  infants  ; 
then  a  consequent  lack  of  women  within  the  tribe  ; 
then  the  necessity  for  exogamy,  or  the  procuring 
of  wives  from  outside  the  tribe,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, the  custom  of  marriage  by  capture,  or 
the  recruiting  of  domestic  life  from  other  tribes. 
Finally,  out  of  this  unity  in  the  male,  emerges, 
under  more  advanced  social  conditions,  the  patri- 
archal family,  with  its  profound  effect,  through 
Roman  law  and  ecclesiastical  custom,  on  modern 
views  of  marriage  and  divorce. 

Out   of  such   a   struggle   for   existence   among 
social  types,  the   modern   family  is  born.      The 


THE   FAMILY  I39 

relation  of  individuals  which  it  represents,  with 
personal  rights  and  obligations,  is  a  relation 
unattained  in  primitive  social  groups.  Prophe- 
sied though  monogamy  may  be  by  the  evolution 
of  the  domestic  group,^  the  family  as  we  under- 
stand it,  with  its  mutual  sacrifices,  its  personal 
self-surrender,  its  discovery  of  the  higher  self  in 
the  social  group,  appears  to  be  an  end  toward 
which  the  movement  of  social  evolution  has  been 
for  ages  tending.  The  social  order,  in  St.  Paul's 
language,  has  groaned  and  travailed  in  pain,  wait- 
ing for  the  revelaftbn  of  the  higher  type.  Here, 
then,  at  last  the  problem  of  the  family  begins  to 
be  seen  in  its  true  dimensions.  It  is  not  merely 
a  problem  of  contemporary  or  local  expediency, 
or  even  one  of  social  philosophy  alone,  but  one 
which  has  the  entire  history  of  the  race  for  its 
background  and  the  entire  future  of  the  social 
order  for  its  consequence.  The  immediate  ques- 
tions of  marriage  and  divorce  which  agitate  the 
modern  world  should  be  considered  in  the  light 
of  this  long  story  of  social  evolution  or  reversion. 
With  the  integrity  or  instability  of  the  unit  of 
civilization  is  likely  to  stand  or  fall  the  structure 
of  that  civilization.  The  most  fundamental  ques- 
tion which  can  be  asked  of  any  phase  of  social 
condition  is  this  :  What  are  the  character,  form, 
and  habits  of  its  family  life  ? 

It  is  at  precisely  this  point,  however,  that  we 
now  meet   the   most  uncompromising  and   undis- 

1  Spencer,  "  Principles  of  Sociology,"  I,  673  ff. 


140      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

guised  attack  upon  the  modern  family, — the 
attack  of  the  scientific  socialist.  It  would  be  by 
no  means  just  to  say  that  the  encouragement  of 
domestic  instability  is  an  essential  part  of  the 
socialist  programme.  Many  strenuous  advocates 
of  common  industrial  ownership  shrink  from  the 
thought  of  a  cooperative  commonwealth  of  wives 
and  children.^  Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that,  with 
great  ingenuity  and  candor,  the  leaders  of  the  Ger- 
man school,  by  utilizing  the  researches  of  the 
evolutionists  to  which  we  have  just  alluded,  and 
applying  them  to  the  problem  of  social  revolution, 
have  obtained  a  philosophy  of  history  which  has 
had  profound  effect  upon  the  practical  beliefs  of 
millions  of  plain  people.^  To  those  who  would 
substitute  common  ownership  for  individual  liberty, 
the  institution  of  the  family  presents  one  of  the 
most  persistent  obstacles.  Domestic  unity  is  in- 
consistent with  an  absolute  social  unity  vested  in 
the  State.  The  thrift,  economies,  and  centralized 
interest  of  the  isolated  home  tend  to  detach  those 
who  are  devoted  to  such  homes  from  complete 
devotion  to  the  socialist  ideal.     "  Family  suprem- 

^  L.  Stein,  "  Die  soziale  Frage  im  Lichte  der  Philosophic,"  s.  77, 
"  In  a  socialist  state  of  any  civilized  character,  the  institution  of 
monogamy  must  remain  undisturbed." 

2  Bebel,  "  Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialismus,"  10.  Aufl.,  1891,  ss.  7-72; 
F.  Engel, "  Der  Ursprung  der  Familie,  des  Privateigenturas  und  des 
Staates,"  4.  Aufl.,  1892;  Dritter  Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1892, 
s.  8  ;  F.  Naumann,  "  Christentum  und  Familie  "  ;  Neunter  Evang.- 
soz.  Kongress,  1898;  Rade,  "Die  sittlich-religiose  Gedankenvvelt 
unsrer  Industriearbeiter,"  s.  117  ff.  ("  Ehe  und  Familienleben  "). 


THE  FAMILY  I4I 

acy  will  be  absolutely  incompatible  with  an  inter- 
dependent solidaric  commonwealth."  ^ 

To  these  practical  considerations,  moreover, 
there  is  added  a  new  application  of  the  doctrine 
of  social  evolution.  The  family,  as  we  have  seen, 
has  had  its  primitive  origin,  its  changeful  phases, 
its  gradual  growth ;  it  is  now,  according  to  many 
socialist  philosophers,  to  have  its  further  period  of 
transition  and  final  decline.  It  is  "  a  historical 
phenomenon  which  has  been  developed  in  course 
of  time,  and  in  time  will  vanish."  What  originally 
consolidated  the  domestic  group  was  the  desire  to 
transmit  private  property.  The  family  was  "an 
economic  unit,  and  such  it  still  remains."  ^  It  is 
an  instrument  of  the  capitalist  class.  Indeed, 
without  such  private  property  the  unity  of  the 
family  can  hardly  exist.  How  can  we  speak  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  home,  it  is  asked,  when  the  man 

1  Gronlund,  "  The  Cooperative  Commonwealth  in  its  Outlines," 
1884,  p.  224.  Bebel  (op.  cit.)  s.  199,  "The  final  result  is  this  : 
Marriage,  as  at  present  understood,  is  an  arrangement  most  closely 
associated  with  the  existing  social  status  and  stands  or  falls  with  it;'* 
s.  5,  "  The  complete  solution  of  the  woman  question  ...  is,  like  the 
Solution  of  the  labor  question,  impossible  under  our  present  social  and 
political  conditions."  E.  and  E.  M.  Aveling,  "The  Woman  Ques- 
tion "  (a  tract),  1897,  P*  ^^j  "  The  contract  between  man  and  woman 
will  be  of  a  purely  private  nature.  .  .  .  For  divorce  there  will  be 
no  need."  K.  P.,  "  Socialism  and  Sex  "  (undated),  London,  Reeves, 
"  Economic  independence  is  essential  to  all  humans.  .  .  .  The  cur- 
rent type  of  sex  relationship  ...  is  inconsistent  with  economic 
independence,  and  therefore  is  a  type  destined  to  extinction.  The 
socialistic  movement  with  its  new  morality  .  .  .  must  surely  and 
rapidly  undermine  our  current  marriage  customs  and  marital  laws." 

2  Naumann,  "Christentum  und  Familie,"  s.  12, 


142      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

and  his  wife  have  no  home  or  private  possessions, 
and  both  work  all  day  in  the  mill  or  the  street  ? 
'*  For  a  large  part  of  the  working  population  of  our 
great  industrial  cities,"  remarks  a  German  stu- 
dent, *'  the  traditional  form  of  the  family  no  longer 
exists."  ^ 

It  is  still  further  pointed  out  that  even  as 
regards  its  contribution  to  industrial  life  the 
importance  of  the  family  is  already  enormously 
lessened.  Once  every  form  of  industry  went  on 
within  the  family  circle;  but,  as  the  methods  of 
the  great  industry  are  substituted  for  work  done 
in  the  home,  the  economic  usefulness  of  the  family 
is  practically  outgrown.  Women  are  no  longer  the 
slaves  of  domestic  service.  They  can  lead  their 
own  lives  and  earn  their  own  bread.  "Machin- 
ery has  become  their  saviour."  ^  Thus,  with  the 
coming  of  the  socialist  State,  family  unity  will  be 
merged  in  a  higher  end.  The  wife,  being  no  longer 
doomed   to    household  drudgery,   will  have    the 

1  Gohre,  "Drei  Monate  Fabrikarbeiter,"  1891,  s.  37,  "Dass 
infolge  dieser  Zustande  in  weiten  Kreisen  unsrer  grossstadtischen 
Industriebevolkerung  die  Uberlieferte  Form  der  Familie  heute 
schon  nicht  mehr  vorhanden  ist."  So  Morris  and  Bax,  "  Socialism," 
p.  299  fF.,  "  The  present  marriage  system  is  based  on  the  general 
supposition  of  economic  dependence  of  the  woman  on  the  man. 
.  .  .  The  basis  would  disappear  with  the  advent  of  social  economic 
freedom.  ...  A  new  development  of  the  family  would  take  place 
on  the  basis  of  .  .  .  mutual  inclination  and  affection,  an  association 
terminable  at  the  will  of  either  party.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  great 
the  gain  would  be  to  morality  and  sentiment." 

^Naumann,  s.  14;  see  also  his  "  Der  Christ  im  Zeitalter  det 
Maschine,"  in  his  "  Was  heisst  Christlich-Sozial  ?  "  1894. 


THE   FAMILY  I43 

greater  blessing  of  economic  equality.  Children 
will  be  cared  for  by  the  community  under  health- 
ful and  uniform  conditions,  and  we  shall  arrive  at 
what  has  been  called  "  the  happy  time  when  the 
continuity  of  society  no  longer  depends  upon  the 
private  nursery."  ^  Childbearing  and  non-child- 
bearing  women  will  have  separate  consideration, 
so  that  both  production  and  liberty  shall  be 
insured.^  The  evolution  of  the  family  will  have 
proceeded  from  simplicity  to  simplicity.  Its  his- 
tory will  have  been  a  spiral  progress,  beginning  in 
the  promiscuous  freedom  of  savagery,  and  ending 
in  the  equally  incidental  and  loose  relations  of 
individual  and  temporary  desire. 

It  is  difficult  for  one  who  is  unfamiliar  with  the 
socialist  propaganda  to  believe  that  these  specula- 
tions concerning  social  evolution  can  have  had  seri- 
ous influence  upon  the  lives  of  the  working-people  to 
whom  socialism  has  become  a  practical  creed ;  but 
the  fact  is  that  in  popularized,  and  often  in  grosser, 
form,  this  protest  against  family  exclusiveness  has 
become  a  positive  part  of  the  German  gospel  of 
discontent.  The  German  hand-worker  is  con- 
stantly reminded  that  his  economic  welfare  is  to 
be  found  in  a  complete  break  with  that  social  order 
of  which  capitalism,  religion,  and  family  unity 
are   the   bulwarks;   and   his   eager  mind   is   con- 

1  Bernard  Shaw,  quoted  Pall  Mall  Magazine,  April,  1898. 

2  The  practical  arrangement  of  this  stock-farm  scheme  is  de- 
scribed by  Karl  Pearson,  "The  Ethics  of  Free  Thought,"  1888, 
p.  379  ff. 


144      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

stantly  fed  by  the  literature  of  domestic  revolt. 
Still  more  insidious  is  this  same  doctrine  as  it  is 
expounded  in  English  as  well  as  German  literature, 
addressed  not  to  working-people,  but  to  light- 
minded  and  self-indulgent  readers  of  the  prosper- 
ous classes.  The  modern  novel  appears  to  find 
no  theme  more  lucrative  than  that  of  the  fail- 
ure of  marriage,  and  discusses  in  more  or  less 
undisguised  language  the  next  steps  which  may 
be  proposed  in  domestic  evolution.  In  short,  it 
has  become  clear,  not  only  that  a  transformation 
of  economic  conditions  is  likely  to  bring  with  it  a 
radical  change  in  domestic  relations,  but  that,  on 
the  other  hand,  until  a  new  set  of  ideas  about 
family  life  are  made  thoroughly  famiUar,  the  great- 
est obstruction  to  radical  economic  change  will 
remain  unremoved.  Nothing  is  stranger  in  the 
modern  social  agitation  than  this  transfer  of  its 
storm-centre  from  the  issue  with  capitalism,  in 
which  it  began,  to  the  apparently  remote  and  tran- 
quil region  of  the  family ;  and  it  is  not  inconceiv- 
able that  the  judgment  of  history  on  the  programme 
of  economic  socialism  may  be  determined,  not  so 
much  by  the  main  issue  for  which  the  programme 
appears  to  stand,  as  by  the  effect  of  the  changes 
proposed  upon  the  integrity  of  the  family. 

Such,  then,  is  the  place  in  modern  thought  of 
the  problem  which,  in  its  obvious  and  temporary 
form,  presented  itself  as  a  mere  question  of  the 
regulation  of  marriage  and  divorce.     Two  forces 


THE  FAMILY  1 45 

appear  to  threaten  the  stability  of  the  present 
social  order,  —  the  reactionary  force  of  self-inter- 
ested individualism,  and  the  revolutionary  force  of 
scientific  socialism ;  and  at  the  point  where  these 
forces  meet  stands  the  institution  of  the  family. 
On  the  one  hand  it  is  in  danger  of  being  shattered 
into  its  atoms,  on  the  other  hand  it  is  in  danger 
of  being  lost  in  a  larger  unity.  On  the  one  hand 
is  a  possible  social  reversion,  and  on  the  other 
hand  a  possible  social  revolution.  The  problem 
of  the  family  is  not  only  theoretically  fundamental 
in  social  philosophy,  but  it  is  also  the  practical 
issue  whose  decision  is  most  likely  to  determine 
the  future  of  human  society,  government,  and  re- 
ligion. With  this  problem,  therefore,  brought  to 
its  larger  statement  and  seen  in  its  far-reaching 
effects,  we  turn  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and 
proceed  to  inquire  whether  the  social  principles 
of  his  gospel  which  we  have  already  considered 
appear  to  open  into  any  definite  instructions  con- 
cerning this  special  case. 

As  one  sets  himself  to  such  an  inquiry  he  is 
struck  at  once  by  the  extraordinary  emphasis 
repeatedly  laid  by  Jesus  on  the  institution  of  the 
family.  There  were  many  other  problems  con- 
yrning  which  his  judgment  was  sought,  where  it 
must  be  inferred  either  from  slight  allusions  or 
from  complete  silence  or  from  some  single  illu- 
minating phrase.  Toward  the  politics,  the  larger 
social  institutions,  and  even  the  theological  issues 
of  his  time,   his   attitude  was,  as  a  rule,  one  of 

L 


146      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

extraordinary  reserve,  which  is  as  disappointing 
to  many  a  modern  reformer  as  it  was  perplexing 
to  many  a  hearer  of  his  message.^  On  the  other 
hand,  with  quite  unparalleled  fulness  of  detail, 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  deals  with  the  nature  and 
obligations  of  the  family.  With  unusual  identity 
of  language  the  first  three  gospels  record  his 
sayings  on  this  subject,  and  their  reiteration  of 
the  teaching  indicate  how  profound  an  impression 
it  originally  made.^  Still  further,  this  is  the  only 
aspect  of  social  life  concerning  which  Jesus  de- 
scends from  the  announcing  of  general  principles 
to  the  further  duty  of  prescribing  specific  legisla- 
tion. When,  for  instance,  the  Pharisees  are  in- 
formed that  the  new  teaching  concerning  marriage 
and  divorce  is  not  what  "was  said  to  them  of 
old  time," 3  and  come  to  Jesus,  *' tempting  him,"* 
Jesus  does  not,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  refuse 
to  be  ensnared  by  their  questions,  but  proceeds  to 
expound  with  candor  and  thoroughness  the  Chris- 
tian law  of  the  family  in  its  relation  to  the  Mosaic 
law.  When,  again,  the  Sadducees  bring  him  the 
problem  of  marriage  ingeniously  converted  into  a 
theological  puzzle,  Jesus  again,  instead  of  answer- 
ing, "  Why  tempt  ye  me,  ye  hypocrites  } "  ^  seems 
glad  to  use  this  ill-intended  occasion  as  an  oppoF- 
tunity  for  defining  the  place  of  marriage  in  the 

1 "  Ecce  Homo,"  p.  336,  "  It  was  Christ's  fixed  resolution  to  enter 
into  no  contest  with  the  civil  power." 

2  Matt.  V.  31  ;   Matt.  xix.  9  ;   Mark  x.  11  ;  Luke  xvi.  18. 

«  Matt.  V.  21.  *  Matt.  xix.  3.  ^  Matt.  xxii.  18, 


THE   FAMILY  1 4/ 

spiritual  world,  and  his  doctrine  is  set  forth  with 
such  force  and  clearness  that  "  when  the  multitudes 
heard  it,  they  were  astonished  at  his  teaching."  ^ 

More  significant  still  of  the  sentiment  of  Jesus 
concerning  the  family  is  his  general  use  of  this 
relationship  as  the  type  which  expresses  all  that 
was  most  sacred  to  his  mind.  His  entire  theology 
may  be  described  as  a  transfiguration  of  the  family. 
God  is  a  Father,  man  is  his  child ;  and  from  the 
father  to  the  child  there  is  conveyed  the  precious 
and  patient  message  of  paternal  love.  When  the 
prodigal  boy,  in  that  parable  which  most  perfectly 
tells  the  story  of  the  sinning  and  repentant  life, 
"came  to  himself,"  his  first  words  were,  **I  will 
arise  and  go  to  my  father  "  ;  ^  and  while  he  is  yet 
afar  off  the  waiting  father  sees  him  coming  and  is 
moved  with  compassion.  Repentance,  that  is  to 
say,  is  but  the  homesickness  of  the  soul,  and  the 
uninterrupted  and  watching  care  of  the  parent  is 
the  fairest  earthly  type  of  the  unfailing  forgiveness 
of  God.  The  family  is,  to  the  mind  of  Jesus,  the 
nearest  of  human  analogies  to  that  Divine  order 
which  it  was  his  mission  to  reveal. 

To  all  these  aspects  of  his  teaching,  which  indi- 
cate the  thought  of  Jesus  concerning  the  family, 
may  be  further  added  his  habitual  sympathy  for 
domestic  life  itself  and  his  habitual  reverence  for 
women.  '  Jesus,  though  having  "not  where  to  lay 
his  head,"^  was  as  far  as  possible  from  the  habits 
of  celibate  asceticism.     He  shared  the  gayety  of 

1  Matt.  xxii.  33.  2  Luke  xv.  18.  ^  Luke  ix.  58c 


148      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  wedding  feast ;  ^  he  lived  until  manhood  in  the 
tranquil  simplicity  of  a  village  home  ;  he  was  sub- 
ject unto  his  parents; 2  he  found  respite  from  the 
strain  of  his  last  days  in  the  family  circle  at  Beth- 
any.3  His  attitude  toward  women  was  marked 
both  by  insight  and  by  courage.  Nothing  could 
be  more  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus  than  to 
say  with  Bebel  that  "  Christian  doctrine  exhibits 
the  same  contempt  for  women  which  all  Oriental 
religions  manifest."  On  the  contrary,  without  en- 
tering into  discussion  of  the  rights  of  women  to 
special  consideration,  Jesus  honors  them  in  con- 
versation and  in  deed.  He  speaks  to  one  unre- 
sponsive woman  his  momentous  words,  "  God  is  a 
Spirit: ...  I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  he";*  he  in- 
terprets and  welcomes  the  affection  which  prompts 
another  woman  to  lavish  on  him  her  costly  offer- 
ing ;  ^  he  reads  the  heart  of  the  woman  who  is  a 
sinner ;  ^  he  lifts  the  thoughts  of  Martha  above  her 
household  cares  ^ ;  in  his  doctrine  of  marriage  he 
explicitly  guards  the  rights  and  enforces  the  duties 
of  the  woman  ;  and  finally,  his  last  thought  upon 
the  cross  is  for  his  mother  in  her  solitary  home.^ 
His  teaching  moves  in  an  atmosphere  of  domestic 
interests,  and  his  profoundest  thoughts  are  colored 
by  respect  for  the  family.^ 

1  John  ii.  i-i  I.         8  Matt.  xxvi.  6.  ^  John  xii.  7,  8. 

*  Luke  ii.  51.  *  John  iv.  24,  26.  ®  John  viii.  7-1 1. 

'^  John  xi.  21-27.  ^  John  xix.  26,  27. 

®  Compare  Shailer  Mathews,  "  Social  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  p.  98  ff. 
So  "  Ecce  Homo,"  p.  233,  "  Family  affection  in  some  form  is  the 
almost  indispensable  root  of  Christianity."    \ 


THE   FAMIL 


No  sooner,  however,  does  one  observe  these 
characteristics  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  than  he 
perceives  a  striking  analogy  between  that  teach- 
ing and  the  discussions  which  we  have  already 
"'described  as  characteristic  of  the  present  age.  The 
considerations  which  made  the  problem  of  the 
family  conspicuous  in  the  thought  of  Jesus  were, 
of  course,  infinitely  removed  from  the  speculations 
and  apprehensions  of  the  modern  world  ;  but  the 
identity  of  conclusion  concerning  the  place  of 
the  family  in  the  social  order  is  impressive.  The 
social  teaching  of  Jesus,  proceeding  from  a  wholly 
different  point  of  view,  lays  its  hand  on  the  same 
key  of  social  progress  which  is  now  indicated  by 
the  social  philosopher;  and  the  character  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  on  this  subject  is  one  whose 
importance  could  not  be  adequately  appreciated 
until  the  researches  of  the  present  generation  had 
recalled  attention  to  the  problem  of  the  family. 
In  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  as  in  these  last  inquiries 
concerning  the  evolution  of  society,  the  crucial 
problem  is  that  of  the  nature  and  stability  of  the 
domestic  group.  Modern  research  observes  the 
coherent  family  system  working  its  way  through 
the  history  of  tribes  and  nations,  and  moulding 
whole  races  into  firmer  stuff ;  Jesus,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  a  wholly  different  horizon  before  his 
mind,  sees  this  same  relationship  of  the  family  set 
in  the  still  wider  sphere  of  the  Divine  order,  and 
finds  in  the  unity  of  the  family  that  social  force 
which  moulds  all  mankind  into  one  great  family 


I50      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

under  the  Fatherhood  of  a  loving  God.  Modem 
learning,  using  the  language  of  research,  says, 
"The  family  is  the  unit  of  civilization";  Jesus, 
using  the  language  of  Hebrew  scripture,  says,  "The 
twain  shall  become  one  flesh.  .  .  .  What  there- 
fore God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put 
asunder."  ^ 

Approaching,  then,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  con- 
cerning the  family  with  this  recognition  of  its 
central  position  in  his  thought,  we  observe  still 
another  likeness  to  the  modern  situation.  There 
are,  as  we  have  seen,  two  distinct  aspects  of  the 
present  issue,  —  its  contemporary,  immediate,  leg- 
islative form,  involving  the  practical  treatment  of 
marriage  and  divorce ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  its 
more  comprehensive,  philosophical,  prophetic  form, 
in  which  the  problem  of  the  family  becomes  one 
element  in  the  process  of  social  evolution.  The 
same  distinction  may  be  observed  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  Far  as  he  is  removed  from  any  academic 
division  of  his  discourse,  none  the  less,  in  dealing 
with  the  family,  he  speaks  at  times  in  terms  of 
social  legislation  concerning  the  family,  and  at 
times  in  terms  of  moral  education  through  the 
family.  On  the  one  hand,  he  offers  a  specific  doc- 
trine concerning  marriage  and  divorce,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  announces  principles  of  social  life 
which  immediately  and  profoundly  affect  the  con- 
stitution of  the  family.  The  first  aspect  of  his 
teaching,  being  the  more  obvious  and  explicit,  has 
1  Matt.  xix.  5,  6. 


THE   FAMILY  I5I 

attracted  the  greater  attention  from  students  of 
the  Christian  law  of  social  life,  as  though  Jesus 
were  primarily  a  social  reformer ;  the  second  way 
of  teaching,  being  in  his  more  accustomed  manner 
of  general  instruction,  is  less  defined  and  external, 
but  lies  in  reality  much  deeper  in  the  purpose  of 
Jesus  and  is  of  greater  significance  for  the  modern 
question  of  the  family. 

As  to  the  explicit  doctrine  of  Jesus  concerning 
marriage  and  divorce,  there  would  seem  to  be 
little  difficulty  of  interpretation.  Indeed,  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  how  this  subject  has  come  to  pro- 
vide such  inexhaustible  material  for  ecclesiastical 
discussion.  Unwelcome  the  teaching  of  Jesus  may 
be  to  many  modern  minds ;  impracticable  or  inju- 
dicious it  may  appear  under  modern  conditions  ; 
"overstrained  morality,"  it  may  be,  as  Renan  called 
it ;  but  in  its  main  features  this  teaching  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  called  complicated  or  equivocal 
or  obscure. 

In  the  passage  which  presents  its  most  formal 
statement,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  begins,  as  it  so 
often  does,  with  a  text  from  the  Hebrew  scrip- 
tures, which  Scripture,  as  he  had  solemnly  told  his 
people,  he  had  come  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil. 
"  He  which  made  them,  .  .  ."  says  Jesus,  quoting 
from  the  book  of  Genesis,  "made  them  male  and 
female, .  . .  and  the  twain  shall  become  one  flesh." ^ 
The  unity  thus  formed,  Jesus  goes  on  to  say,  in 
answer  to  those  who  were  "tempting"  him,  is 
1  Matt.  xix.  4,  5. 


152      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

absolute.  "They  are  no  more  twain,  but  one 
flesh."  ^  To  put  away  one's  wife,  therefore,  and 
marry  another  is,  Jesus  does  not  hesitate  to  say, 
for  the  man  to  commit  adultery ;  and  to  put  away 
one's  husband  and  marry  another  is  for  the  wife  to 
commit  adultery. 

In  one  important  detail,  it  is  true,  a  difference  is 
to  be  observed  between  this  legislation  as  recorded 
by  Matthew  and  the  parallel  passages  in  Mark  and 
Luke.2  The  first  gospel,  in  both  the  passages  which 
occur  in  it  concerning  divorce  and  remarriage,  in- 
serts the  clause,  "  saving  for  the  cause  of  fornica- 
tion " ;  while  in  the  other  two  gospels  not  even  this 
single  exception  is  noted.  Various  interpretations 
have  been  given  to  this  divergence  in  the  tradition.^ 
It  may  be  urged,  on  the  one  hand,  that,  as  adul- 
tery practically  ruptures  the  unity  of  the  flesh,  it 
is  a  priori  more  probable  that  Jesus  should  have 

1  Matt.  xix.  6.  *Mark  x.  i-i2  ;  Luke  xvi.  i8. 

«  On  the  one  hand,  Keim,  «  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  III,  310,  "This 
addition  is  interpolated";  V,  32,  "Jesus  softened  his  vigorous  state- 
ment by  no  exception,  not  even  by  the  most  conciliating  exception 
of  the  wife's  adultery,  which  the  later  Church,  and  first  of  all  our 
Matthew,  introduced."  Weiss,  "Life  of  Christ,"  II,  150  (note), 
"The  form  of  Jesus'  remarks  against  remarriage  Luke  has  pre- 
served in  the  originals,"  II,  295  (note).  On  the  other  hand, 
Meyer's  "  Handbook"  (tr.  1884),  on  Matt.  xix.  9,  "The  words  are  not 
to  be  regarded  as  an  addition  of  the  evangelist.  .  .  .  The  excep- 
tion which  they  contain  to  the  law  against  divorce  is  the  unica  et 
adaquata  exceptioP  Reconciliation  of  the  two  views  is  urged  by 
Wendt,  "  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  I,  354,  "  The  exception  noted  by  the 
first  evangelist  is  no  real  exception  to  the  rule  which  Jesus  so 
emphatically  laid  down,  that  the  obligation  of  marriage  is  absolute.'* 


THE   FAMILY  1 53 

recognized  it  as  putting  an  end  to  the  marriage 
relation.  It  may  even  be  suggested  that  the  two 
gospels  which  omit  to  mention  this  ground  for 
remarriage  have  omitted  it  because  they  regarded 
it  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  must  be,  in  any  event, 
admitted  that  the  first  gospel  gives  its  support 
to  those  who  would  permit  remarriage  for  the 
innocent  party  in  a  divorce  for  adultery,  though 
not  even  here  is  there  any  substantial  support  for 
those  who  would  extend  the  definition  of  adul- 
tery to  undefined  causes  like  desertion  or  aliena- 
tion, or  still  more  trivial  offences  now  often  held 
to  be  sufficient.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be 
reasonably  argued  that  in  a  matter  so  closely  con- 
cerning practical  life  it  is  more  probable  that  Mat- 
thew should  have  been  led  to  add  an  exceptive 
clause  than  that  the  two  other  evangelists  should 
have  omitted  to  mention  so  important  a  qualifica- 
tion. It  may  be  still  further  urged  that  it  is  pre- 
cisely the  admission  of  this  single  cause  which  has 
brought  with  it,  in  all  manner  of  disguises,  that 
very  laxity  which  Jesus  was  bent  upon  excluding, 
as  though  the  one  devil  should  return  bringing 
seven    other  devils   more   wicked  than   himself.^ 

1  An  interesting  analogy  to  the  variation  concerning  an  exceptive 
clause  is  provided  by  the  variation  of  the  text  of  Matthew  in  the  pas- 
sages concerning  self-control  (Matt.  v.  22).  The  Authorized  English 
Version,  following  some  manuscripts,  reads :  "  Whosoever  is  angry 
with  his  brother  without  a  cause  "  ;  while  the  Revised  Version,  on 
better  authority  (see  the  critical  note  of  Meyer  on  Matt.  v.  22,  1864, 
s.  136 :  "Es  ist  ein  unpassender,  aus  Befangenheit  geflossener,  obwohl 
sehr  alter  .  .  .  Zusatz  ")  omits  the  qualifying  clause  altogether. 


154      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Important,  however,  as  this  question  of  interpreta- 
tion is,  and  prolonged  as  have  been  the  discussions 
based  upon  it  in  the  councils  of  the  Christian 
Church,  the  really  significant  element  of  the 
teaching  is  not  that  in  which  the  various  records 
differ,  but  that  in  which  they  agree.  The  main 
intention  of  the  teaching  has  been  greatly  over- 
shadowed by  this  discussion  of  a  single  detail. 
The  emphasis  of  Jesus  is,  in  reality,  laid  —  not 
upon  the  terms  of  a  possible  separation  —  but 
upon  the  question  of  remarriage  after  such  sepa- 
ration. "Whosoever  putteth  away  his  wife  and 
marrieth  another,"  say  all  the  passages.  It  is 
against  the  provoking  of  alienation  by  this  antici- 
pation of  remarriage  that  Jesus  makes  his  special 
protest ;  and  the  modern  world,  with  its  volun- 
tary desertions  often  suggested  by  antecedent  and 
illegitimate  affection,  knows  well  how  grave  a 
social  peril  it  is  with  which  Jesus  deals.  He 
teaches  no  prohibition  of  voluntary  separation 
in  case  of  conjugal  failure  ;  he  makes  no  cruel 
demand  upon  the  innocent  to  sacrifice  children  or 
love  or  life  for  one  terrible  mistake  ;  but,  except 
at  the  utmost  for  one  cause,  —  and  perhaps  not 
even  for  that  cause,  —  the  mistake  is  one  which, 
in  the  judgment  of  Jesus,  involves  a  permanent 
burden.  Marriage  when  undertaken  must  be 
regarded,  not  as  a  temporary  agreement,  but  as  a 
practically  indissoluble  union. 

It  is  not   surprising  to  observe   that  both  the 
Pharisees,  to  whom  Jesus   offered   this   teaching, 


THE   FAMILY  1 55 

and  the  disciples,  who  listened  to  it,  were  united 
in  their  protests  against  it.  On  the  one  hand, 
the  Pharisees  said,  "This  is  a  harder  doctrine  than 
that  of  Moses,"  and  Jesus  admits  that  this  is  so. 
You,  he  says,  live  by  the  law  of  Deuteronomy,  but 
even  in  your  own  tradition  there  is  the  older  law 
of  Genesis.  "  Moses  .  .  .  suffered  you  to  put 
away  your  wives :  but  from  the  beginning  it  hath 
not  been  so."  ^  Behind  the  conception  of  a  sacra- 
ment, that  is  to  say,  even  when  that  sacrament 
was  ordained  by  Moses  himself,  there  is  the  still 
more  primitive  law  of  nature,  the  essential  adap- 
tation described  in  Genesis  of  monogamy  to  human 
life ;  or,  as  Jesus  said,  that  which  has  been  "  from 
the  beginning."  On  the  other  hand,  the  disciples 
say,  "  If  the  case  of  the  man  is  so  with  his  wife, 
it  is  not  expedient  to  marry," ^  and  this  is  precisely 
the  criticism  frequently  offered  in  modern  times 
to  any  strict  construction  of  the  marriage  tie. 
The  common  habit  of  the  political  or  the  legal 
mind  inclines  it  to  inquire,  not  for  ideal  social 
relations,  but  for  temporary  security  against  imme- 
diate perils.  Stringent  regulation  of  marriage,  it 
is  urged,  tends  to  increase  the  probability  of  pro- 
miscuous relations,  and  in  some  cases  to  throw 
doubt  on  the  legality  of  well-intentioned  marriages 
or  on  the  legitimacy  of  children.  In  the  interest, 
therefore,  of  good  order,  the  marriage  contract 
should  be  simplified  and  relief  from  its  bonds 
should  be  within  easy  reach.  This  is  the  defence 
1  Matt.  xix.  8.  2  Matt.  xix.  lo. 


156      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

of  laws  concerning  marriage  which  authorize  it 
without  preliminary  license,  or  solemnizing  magis- 
trate, or  witness  ;  and  of  laws  concerning  divorce 
which  permit  it  for  a  hasty  temper  or  a  passing 
whim.  If  the  case  of  the  man  with  his  wife,  it  is 
said,  is  more  strictly  regulated,  "it  is  not  expedient 
to  marry." 

To  all  such  suggestions  that  the  way  to  sanctify 
marriage  is  to  make  it  less  binding,  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  is  absolutely  opposed.  The  alternative 
he  presents  to  permanent  acceptance  of  the  mar- 
riage bond  is  not  that  of  a  contract  which  may  be 
hastily  made  and  hastily  broken  ;  still  less  is  it  the 
probability  of  living  in  vice  if  one  is  not  living  in 
matrimony.  The  proposition  of  Jesus,  which  would 
seem  to  be  not  unreasonable,  but  which,  in  the 
light  of  much  modern  legislation  and  social  custom, 
appears  in  an  extreme  degree  ascetic  and  unattain- 
able, is  simply  this,  —  that  the  alternative  to  per- 
manent union  in  marriage  is  permanent  purity  out 
of  marriage.  There  are,  he  admits,  cases  in  which 
"it  is  not  expedient  to  marry,"  ^  though  they  are 
by  no  means  cases  of  mere  insufficient  self-control, 
such  as  seek  relief  in  the  modern  courts.  Physical 
reasons  of  temperament  or  of  heredity  may  some- 
times fitly  prohibit  matrimony.  Such  persons,  in 
the  language  of  Jesus,  "are  born  eunuchs  from 
the  mother's  womb."  Again,  a  profound  spiritual 
demand  is  sometimes  inconsistent  with  the  mar» 
ried    state,  as   it  was  indeed  with  Jesus  himself. 

'    ^Matt.  xix.  10-12. 


THE   FAMILY  1 57 

Such  persons,  as  he  says,  **  make  themselves  eu- 
nuchs for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake."  The 
alternative  in  all  such  cases  is  not  of  more  sexual 
liberty,  but  of  less.  They  sacrifice  family  life  for 
a  duty  which  in  their  case  is  higher.  It  is,  as  he 
had  said  just  before,  like  plucking  out  the  right 
eye  or  cutting  off  the  right  hand  if  they  cause  to 
stumble.^ 

Concerning  the  general  rule  of  marriage  and  its 
logical  consequences,  his  teaching  is  explicit  and 
undisguised.  Marriage,  being  ordained  of  God  for 
the  union  of  two  in  one  flesh,  is  in  its  intention 
for  two  and  for  two  only,  so  long  as  they  both  shall 
live.  Even  to  look  upon  another  woman  to  lust  after 
her  is  to  commit  adultery  with  her  already  in  the 
heart.  Jesus  recognizes  neither  contemporaneous, 
nor,  as  it  has  been  called,  consecutive,  polygamy.^ 
Precisely  as  the  other  relations  of  family  life,  of 
parent  with  child,  of  brother  with  brother,  have 
never  been  regarded  as  to  be  "  put  away  "  ;  pre- 
cisely as  there  may  be  in  these  relations  alienation 
and  even  separation,  but  cannot  be  divorce,  per- 
mitting new  alliance  with  new  sons  or  brothers,  — 
so,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  is  the  rela- 
tion of  husband  and  wife.  Persons  on  entering 
Christian  marriage,  as  in  becoming  parents  after 
marriage,  are  undertaking  a  responsibility  from 
which  they  may  not  look  to   escape.     The  son, 

1  Matt,  xviii.  8, 9.    So  Mathews, «  Social  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  p.  93. 
^Princeton  Revt^tv,]vXyt  1882,  Leonard  Bacon,  "Polygamy  in 
New  England." 


158      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

however  prodigal,  still  belongs  to  the  father ;  and 
the  husband,  though  in  a  far  country  of  perma- 
nent separation,  still  belongs  to  the  wife.  The 
Christian  law  is  not  primarily  designed  to  make 
allowance  for  social  failures,  but  to  establish  the 
principles  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

This  severity,  which  it  is  impossible  to  eliminate 
from  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  was  precisely  what  made 
it  unwelcome  when  first  delivered.  It  was  a  time 
when  in  Rome  the  domestic  integrity,  which  had 
been  the  foundation  of  the  State,  was  corrupted  by 
ostentation  and  extravagance;  a  time  when  in  Judea 
the  teachings  of  Scripture  were  being  learnedly  in- 
terpreted so  as  to  permit  the  very  license  which 
they  were  written  to  forbid.  Thus  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  while  true  to  the  better  tradition  of  both 
countries,  was  too  uncompromising  for  the  self- 
indulgent  aristocracy  of  Rome,  and  too  unmistak- 
able for  the  subtle  theologians  of  Jerusalem.  Indeed, 
it  was  the  more  an  offence  to  both  because  both 
were  forced  to  recognize  that  it  was  the  ideal  from 
which  they  had  fallen  away.  With'  something  of 
the  same  searching  of  hearts,  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
still  meets  both  self-indulgent  desire  and  theo- 
logical ingenuity.  Every  kind  of  argument  about 
unhappy  homes  and  uncongenial  tempers  and  newly 
discovered  affinities  is  answered  by  the  simple 
words  of  Jesus,  "What  therefore  God  hath  joined 
together,  let  not  man  put  asunder."  ^  Every  soft- 
hearted evasion  of  his  legislation  by  those  who 

1  Matt.  xix.  6. 


THE   FAMILY  1 59 

profess  to  be  his  ministers  is  confronted  by  his 
undisguised  language,  "  Whosoever  shall  put  away 
his  wife,  .  .  .  and  shall  marry  another,  committeth 
adultery."  ^  The  family  is,  to  Jesus,  not  a  tempo- 
rary arrangement  at  the  mercy  of  uncontrolled 
temper  or  shifting  desire ;  it  is  ordained  for  that 
very  discipline  in  forbearance  and  self-restraint 
which  are  precisely  what  many  persons  would 
avoid,  and  the  easy  rupture  of  its  union  blights 
these  virtues  in  their  bud.  Why  should  one  con- 
cern himself  in  marriage  to  be  considerate  and  for- 
giving if  it  is  easier  to  be  divorced  than  it  is 
to  be  good } 

Finally,  it  is  most  interesting  to  notice  that  this 
high  strain  of  exalted  idealism  in  Jesus  concerning 
marriage  is  not  inconsistent  with  an  equally  re- 
markable quality  of  sanity  and  common  sense. 
Being  asked  one  day  by  the  Sadducees  what  would 
happen  under  his  strict  doctrine  of  the  marriage  tie 
if  "  in  the  resurrection  "  ^  a  woman  found  herself 
among  many  legitimate  claimants,  Jesus  does  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  relation  of  marriage  is 
based  on  physical  conditions,  and  is  not  to  be  a 
characteristic  of  the  heavenly  life.  "  In  the  resur- 
rection they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given  in  mar- 
riage, but  are  as  angels  in  heaven."  ^  it  might 
have  been  anticipated  of  a  mystic  and  visionary,  as 
Jesus  no  doubt  appeared  to  those  who  were  tempt- 
ing him,  that  he  would  use  no  discrimination  in  his 
teaching,  and  could  be  easily  lured  into  discourse 
1  Matt.  xix.  9.  2  Matt.  xxii.  28.  ^  Matt.  xxii.  30. 


l60      JESUS    CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

about  spiritual  marriages  and  affinities,  like  many 
a  feeble  mystic  of  the  modern  world.  Jesus,  how- 
ever, is  in  this  matter  no  mystic  or  ascetic.  He 
recognizes  that  in  marriage  physical  affection  is  an 
element  in  spiritual  unity.  He  looks  at  the  things 
of  the  flesh,  not  as  things  that  are  wrong,  but  as 
things  that  are  real.  The  very  fact  that,  as  Jesus 
says,  "  He  which  made  them  made  them  male  and 
female,"  limits  the  marriage  relation  to  the  physical 
life ;  while  it  is  also  true  that  this  physical  relation- 
ship makes  marriage  a  permanent  relationship  while 
physical  life  lasts. 

Such  seems  to  be  the  nature  of  that  one  form  of 
social  legislation  which  Jesus  ever  concerned  him- 
self to  give.  To  great  numbers  of  persons  who 
have  desired  to  harmonize  domestic  inconsistency 
with  Christian  loyalty,  it  is  a  teaching  which  has 
seemed  hard  to  receive ;  to  many  innocent  persons 
it  is  a  teaching  which,  no  doubt,  has  brought  grave 
suffering ;  to  many  persons  who  have  "  lightly  or 
unadvisedly  "  become  married,  the  penalty  for  their 
mistake  has  often  appeared  intolerable.  Jesus, 
however,  views  the  problem  of  marriage,  like  other 
social  problems,  from  above,  —  in  the  large  horizon 
of  the  purposes  of  God.  Like  a  wise  physician,  he 
detaches  himself  from  entire  absorption  in  specific 
cases  of  social  disease,  and  considers  them  in  re- 
lation to  the  general  principles  of  social  reform. 
His  teaching  may,  as  he  says,  bring,  not  peace,  but 
a  sword.  It  may  happen  that  a  daughter-in-law 
will  be  set  against  her  mother-in-law,  and  a  man's 


THE   FAMILY  l6l 

foes  shall  be  those  of  his  own  household.  None 
the  less,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  the  stable  mono- 
gamic  family  remains  the  type  of  the  unity  of  the 
kingdom  of  God ;  and  his  hope  for  the  world  is  to 
be  fulfilled  through  the  expansion  of  those  affections 
which  are  naturally  born  in  the  uncorrupted  and 
uninterrupted  unity  of  the  home.  To  this  mainte- 
nance of  the  home  in  the  interest  of  the  kingdom 
his  legislation  is  directed.  Those  who,  by  fault  or 
misfortune,  are  involved  in  domestic  instability 
are  permitted  by  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  admit 
their  failure  and  to  part ;  but  they  may  not,  except 
possibly  for  a  single  cause,  —  and  by  no  means 
certainly  even  for  that  cause,  —  forthwith  begin  a 
new  alliance.  Among  those  marriages  which  have 
been  deliberately  wrecked  on  some  well-known 
rock  of  neglected  duty,  that  one  or  the  other  party 
might,  with  full  insurance,  embark  in  another  ven- 
ture, the  teaching  of  Jesus  stands  like  a  lighthouse 
to  mark  the  channel  and  to  make  such  disasters 
criminally  inexcusable.  Special  cases  of  social  dis- 
ease must  not,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
be  permitted  to  menace  the  general  social  health. 
Social  wreckage  must  not  obstruct  social  navigation. 
The  view  from  above  gives  significance  and  justi- 
fication to  much  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  which, 
when  seen  from  below,  may  seem  unreasonably 
severe. 

Such  considerations  as  these,  however,  growing 
out  of  the  legislation  of  Jesus,  carry  us,  it  will  be 


1 62      JESUS   CHRIST   AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

seen,  far  beyond  the  actual  sphere  of  legislation 
itself,  and  into  the  region  of  the  general  conse- 
quences of  his  teaching;  and  here,  as  has  been 
remarked,  we  come  upon  that  which  is  more  charac- 
teristic in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  than  legislation  in  any 
form  can  be.  If  it  is  true,  alike  according  to  the  con- 
clusions of  modern  scholarship  and  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  that  the  maintenance  of  family  integrity  is 
the  basis  of  the  present  social  order,  then  it  must  be 
true  that  those  tendencies  and  enterprises  in  modern 
society  which  make  for  domestic  stability  are  most 
directly  in  line  with  the  purpose  of  Jesus ;  and  it 
must  be  still  further  true  that  many  tendencies  and 
enterprises  of  modern  society  which  may  seem  in 
themselves  of  slight  social  disadvantage  must  be 
regarded  as  grave  social  perils  if  they  are  seen  to 
threaten  the  integrity  of  the  family.  Indeed,  we 
must  go  further,  and  admit  that  the  chief  defences 
of  the  family  are  not  to  be  sought  in  any  form  of 
legislation,  either  political  or  Christian,  but  in 
much  more  remote  sources  of  social  wisdom  and 
strength.  Much  of  the  energy  which  is  devoted  to 
establishing  rules  about  marriage  and  divorce  is 
like  energy  devoted  to  maintaining  a  dike,  after  the 
ocean  has  begun  to  trickle  through.  Outside  such 
remedial  legislation  presses  the  force  of  a  great 
flood  of  restless  desire,  against  which  amendments 
of  legislation  are  of  but  slight  avail ;  and  the  in- 
creasing stream  of  divorces  which  now  penetrates 
the  barrier  of  the  family  is  in  reality  the  indication 
of  a  storm  which  is  produced  by  causes  lying  often 


THE   FAMILY  l6S 

very  far  away.  There  are  social  conditions  in 
modern  life  in  which  promiscuity  and  homelessness 
are  almost  inevitable,  and  where  it  is  a  mockery 
to  talk  of  the  sanctity  of  the  home;  and  there 
are  other  social  conditions,  far  removed  from  the 
first,  where  an  almost  equal  peril  to  the  family  is  to 
be  found  in  social  ambition  and  publicity.  To 
apply,  then,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  the  world  as 
it  now  is,  one  must  take  account  of  things  which 
lie  apparently  quite  beyond  the  specific  problem  of 
the  family,  and  must  observe  some  of  the  tenden- 
cies in  modern  life  which  make  on  the  one  hand 
for  social  integrity,  or  on  the  other  hand  for  social 
disintegration. 

These  remoter  causes  which  at  the  present  time 
work  for  or  against  the  stability  of  the  family  are 
in  the  main  of  two  kinds.  In  the  first  place,  there 
are  causes  which  proceed  from  the  economic  move- 
ments of  the  age ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  there 
are  those  which  proceed  from  the  prevailing  stand- 
ards of  social  life.  The  economic  influences  have 
their  effect  chiefly  on  our  social  customs;  the 
moral  causes  have  a  still  graver  effect  upon  what 
we  may  call  our  social  creed. 

Of  economic  changes  which  tend  to  modify 
domestic  life,  the  most  conspicuous  is  the  un- 
precedented concentration  of  population  in  urban 
and  industrial  life.  In  1791  but  three  per  cent 
of  the  population  of  the  United  States  lived  in 
towns  having  more  than  five  thousand  inhabit- 
ants each.     As  late  as  1840  but  eight  per  cent 


164      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

SO  lived.  Then  began  the  drift  to  the  cities,  until 
in  1880  twenty-two  per  cent,  and  in  1890  twenty, 
nine  per  cent,  or  nearly  a  third  of  the  popu- 
lation, were  housed  in  cities  and  large  townsA 
The  growth  of  the  "  great  industry  "  is  but  an- 
other aspect  of  the  same  migration  ;  it  masses 
population,  and  draws  together  producer,  seller, 
buyer,  and  trader,  until  rural  life,  even  far  away, 
feels  what  Mr.  Charles  Booth  has  called  the  in- 
draught of  the  city.  To  affirm  that  this  migra- 
tion, and  the  congestion  of  population  which 
ensues,  necessarily  lessen  domestic  unity  would 
be,  of  course,  quite  unjustifiable  ;  but  it  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  these  conditions  are  unfavorable 
for  family  life.  The  number  of  divorces  annually 
granted  to  residents  in  cities  in  the  United  States 
is  from  one-third  to  one-half  greater  than  the  num- 
ber granted  to  residents  in  the  country.^  Rural 
life,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  insure  affection 
and  forbearance ;  indeed,  it  is  often  the  monotony 
and  solitude  of  the  country  which  drives  restless 
spirits,  for  good  or  evil,  to  the  vivacity  and  com- 
panionship of  the  great  industry  and  the  great 
town  ;  yet,  in  general,  the  life  of  the  city  is  per- 
vaded by  a  sense  of  temporariness  and  homeless- 
ness,  while  the  life  of  the  country  encourages 
domestic  integrity.     It  is  but  a  small  minority  of 

*  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics^  January,  1890,  A.  B.  Hart, 
"  The  Rise  of  American  Cities  "  ;  C.  D.  Wright,  "  Practical  Soci- 
ology," 1899,  Ch.  VIII  (with  references). 

2"  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Labor,"  1889,  p.  162. 


THE   FAMILY  1 65 

the  population  of  a  great  city  which  is  able  to 
maintain  privacy  of  domestic  arrangement  and  to 
train  those  sentiments  and  traditions  which  gather 
about  a  home.  The  great  proportion  of  the  city's 
population  are  industrial  nomads,  likely  any  day 
to  fold  their  tents  like  Arabs  and  migrate  to 
some  better  market  for  their  labor  or  their  wares ; 
and,  of  these,  a  pitifully  large  proportion  have  not 
even  tents  to  detain  them,  and  herd  together  in 
the  accidental  companionship  of  the  lodging-house, 
the  tenement,  and  the  street.  Indeed,  the  migra- 
tory habit,  which  is  forced  upon  the  poor,  begins 
to  be  a  matter  of  choice  among  the  prosperous, 
and,  instead  of  any  place  which  can  be  perma- 
nently regarded  as  a  home,  we  now  observe,  even 
among  the  luxurious,  a  preference  for  the  publicity 
and  changefulness  of  the  "  flat "  or  the  hotel. 
Whatever  advantages  of  economy  or  convenience 
there  may  be  about  this  congregated  and  shifting 
life,  it  certainly  tends  to  discourage,  either  among 
rich  or  poor,  that  sentiment  which  maintains  the 
unit  of  civilization.  The  Roman  family  had  its 
symbol  of  continuity  in  the  sacred  fire,  burning  on 
the  ancestral  hearth;  but  it  is  not  without  diffi- 
culty that  this  sense  of  a  sacred  and  permanent 
unity  can  be  maintained  round  the  cooking-stove 
of  the  tenement,  the  hot-air  register  of  the  board- 
ing house,  or  even  the  steam  radiator  of  the  apart- 
ment hotel. 

The  problem  of  the  city,  which  is  thus  involved 
in  the  problem  of  the  family,  is  however  by  no 


1 66      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

means  so  formidable  and  overwhelming  a  social  peril 
as  it  at  first  appears  to  be.  Within  this  conges- 
tion of  social  life  there  are  many  signs  which  point 
to  a  restoration  of  social  health  and  a  renewal  of 
domestic  integrity.  First,  may  be  mentioned  the 
now  widely  extended  provision  of  better  lodgings 
for  the  poor.  One  of  the  greatest  achievements 
of  modern  philanthropy  has  been  the  discovery 
that  under  proper  conditions  model  dwellings  are  a 
remunerative  investment.  To  be  charitable  with- 
out being  unbusinesslike  has  long  been  the  un- 
fulfilled ambition  of  the  well-disposed  ;  and  the 
lodging-house  business  has  come  to  offer  at  least 
one  form  of  benevolence  which  justly  commends 
itself  to  generous  but  prudent  philanthropists.^  In 
these  practical  undertakings,  however,  one  rule 
of  construction  is  essential  for  permanent  success, 
and  the  neglect  of  this  rule  has  brought  to  many 
a  well-meant  plan  unanticipated  disaster.  It  is 
the  rule  which  guarantees  to  each  family  its 
domestic  independence  and  seclusion.  However 
much  the  prosperous  may  be  inclined  to  undomes- 
tic  pleasures,  the  healthier  instincts  of  the  self- 
respecting  poor  demand   something  that  can  be 

1  Of  the  abundant  and  rapidly  multiplying  literature  on  the 
housing  of  the  poor  may  be  named :  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Labor,  8th  special  report,  "The  Housing  of  the  Working  Peo- 
ple," by  E.  R.  L.  Gould  ;  "  Report  of  New  York  Tenement  House 
Committee,"  1895  >  American  Economic  Association,  XIII,  Reyn- 
olds, "  Housing  of  Poor  in  American  Cities "  ;  Post,  "  Muster- 
statten  personlicher  Fiirsorge  von  Arbeitgebern,"  1893,  II,  s.  215  fif.; 
H.  H.  Estabrook,  "  Some  Slums  in  Jioston,"  1898. 


THE   FAMILY  1 6/ 

called  a  home.  For  this  reason  blocks  of  model 
dwellings  must  be  so  constructed  that  each  family 
shall  have  its  own  front  door,  within  which  are  all 
the  necessities  of  life.  For  this  reason  also,  when 
feasible,  it  is  wiser  to  build  detached  cottages  than 
solid  blocks.  This  also  is  the  reason  why  great 
industrial  settlements,  absolutely  controlled  by  an 
employer  or  a  corporation,  though  equipped  with 
every  comfort,  are  often  unwelcome  to  hand-work- 
ers, even  on  the  most  economical  terms.  What 
the  good  workman  wants  is  not  benevolent  patron- 
age, but  fair  pay  and  independence.  He  wants  a 
sense  of  proprietorship  and  an  object  for  his  thrift ; 
and  many  a  bewildered  employer  has  fancied  his 
plans  thwarted  by  sheer  ingratitude  and  stupid- 
ity when  in  reality  they  were  confronted  by  the 
healthy  instinct  of  the  home.  The  industrial 
problem  of  dwellings  for  the  poor,  that  is  to  say, 
indicates  in  a  most  unexpected  manner  the  funda- 
mental significance  of  the  problem  of  the  family. 

A  second  hopeful  characteristic  of  the  present 
congestion  of  population  is  the  rapidly  increasing 
tendency  to  suburban  life.  The  provision  of  rapid 
transit  from  the  centre  of  a  city  now  sweeps  each 
day  a  great  multitude  of  plain  and  unambitious 
people  into  more  natural  conditions  of  rural  life ; 
so  that  the  time  may  not  be  remote  when  a  city 
shall  be  little  more  than  a  vast  warehouse  and 
shopping-place,  in  which,  as  in  the  case  of  that  part 
of  London  specifically  called  "the  City,"  the  popu- 
lation may  even  tend  to  decrease.     In  this  tide  of 


1 68      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

population,  flowing  into  the  city  each  morning  and 
ebbing  again  at  night,  we  observe  a  social  move- 
ment which,  beyond  doubt,  makes  for  the  cleans- 
ing of  social  life  and  the  establishment  of  domestic 
unity.  A  suburban  home  is  not  a  guarantee  of 
domestic  happiness,  but  it  certainly  makes  a  centre 
of  mutual  attachment,  thrift,  and  simplicity ;  and 
the  endless  rows  of  unpretentious  and  often  taste- 
less homes  which  now  surround  each  great  city 
are  to  be  reckoned  by  the  thoughtful  observer  as 
a  significant  contribution  to  the  problem  of  the 
family. 

Still  another  corrective  tendency  in  city  life 
which  makes  for  the  integrity  of  the  family  is  to 
be  found  in  the  principles  now  commonly  accepted 
for  the  judicious  care  of  children.  The  modern 
science  of  child-saving  rests  on  faith  in  the  restora- 
tive quality  of  a  good  home.  It  regards  city  insti- 
tutions as  not  only  the  most  extravagant,  but  as 
also  the  least  hopeful,  way  of  caring  for  dependent 
children,  and  its  hope  is  in  the  deportation  of  such 
children  from  the  influences  of  the  city  to  rural 
and  domestic  surroundings.^  All  countries  in 
which  any  alertness  of  mind  is  applied  to  official 
relief  have  come  to  accept  the  placing-out  system 
as  the  way  of  charity  appropriate  to  children, 
and  the  first  principle  of  that  system  is  not  only 

1  J.  A.  Riis,  "The  Children  of  the  Poor,"  1892,  p.  277,  "He  is 
saved  from  becoming  a  tough  to  become  an  automaton."  See  also 
Forum,  January,  1895,  P*  5^  ff-j  F.  G.  Peabody,  "Colonization  as  a 
Remedy  for  City  Poverty." 


THE  FAMILY  1 69 

that  of  "out-door  relief,"  but  that  of  out-of-town 
relief,  and  the  farther  out  the  better.  The  instinct 
of  family  life,  that  is  to  say,  which  is  threatened 
by  the  growth  of  the  city,  indicates  in  its  turn  the 
most  wholesome  and  fruitful  way  for  the  city's  sal- 
vation. 

The  same  restorative  tendency  is  to  be  ob- 
served in  the  habits  of  the  prosperous.  The 
demands  of  business  and  the  passion  for  social 
herding  force  many  prosperous  persons  into  a  form 
of  city  life  which  bears  hardly  any  semblance  to 
the  life  of  a  family,  and  which  strains  and  frets 
the  marriage  tie  with  divided  interests  and  undo- 
mestic  obligations.  As  soon,  however,  as  these 
preposterous  demands  of  the  city  appear  to  be 
satisfied,  the  healthier  domestic  instinct  reasserts 
itself,  and  the  prosperous  —  often,  indeed,  to  escape 
the  city's  tax-bill,  but  often  also  to  escape  from  its 
publicity  and  promiscuity  —  join  the  efflux  to  the 
country,  until  in  many  cities,  for  at  least  half  the 
year,  the  streets  of  the  more  luxurious  city-dwellers 
are  like  streets  of  tombs.  Still  more  significant  is 
the  procedure  of  many  such  persons  in  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children.  Being  instinctively  aware 
that  a  child  needs,  first  of  all,  a  home,  and  being 
conscious  that  their  own  domestic  establishment 
cannot  be  fairly  called  by  that  name,  they  transfer 
the  care  of  their  children,  and  especially  of  their 
boys,  to  schoolmasters  in  the  country.  It  is  but 
another  application  of  the  placing-out  system, 
which  has  for  a  long  time  been  applied  with  sue- 


170      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

cess  to  the  children  of  the  homeless  poor,  and 
which  is  now  having  great  extension  among  the 
children  of  the  homeless  rich.  In  such  instances 
the  utmost  credit  should  be  given  to  the  teachers 
who  by  consecrated  devotion  convert  a  school  into 
a  family ;  but  what,  on  the  other  hand,  is  to  be 
said  of  the  family  which  is  confessedly  not  as 
wholesome  for  one's  children  as  a  school  ?  Occa- 
sionally, no  doubt,  there  may  be  an  occurrence  of 
domestic  disaster  or  necessary  rupture  or  unavoid- 
able circumstances,  in  which  the  deporting  of  a 
child  to  the  custody  of  a  stranger  is  advisable  in 
the  case  of  the  rich  as  in  that  of  the  poor.  In 
general,  however,  the  growth  of  the  boarding- 
school  system  is  an  indictment  of  the  home.  A 
school  may  be  a  better  training-place  of  child-life 
than  a  home ;  but  that  is  because  the  home,  for 
sufficient  or  insufficient  reasons,  is  not  what  a 
home  ought  to  be.  On  the  other  hand,  the  plac- 
ing-out  system  is  a  most  striking  witness  of  the 
significance  of  the  home  in  education.  Parents 
thus  colonizing  their  children  are  indicating  in  the 
most  emphatic  manner  that,  even  if  domestic  unity 
and  seclusion  are  impossible  to  themselves,  some 
substitute  for  these  blessings  must  be  secured  to 
insure  the  moral  and  physical  health  of  those 
whom  they  most  love.  The  same  evils  of  the  city 
streets  and  of  the  undomestic  home  threaten  rich 
and  poor  alike,  and  beneath  the  problem  of  the 
city,  as  in  a  palimpsest,  one  reads  the  underlying 
signs  of  the  significance  of  the  family. 


THE   FAMILY  I /I 

There  are  many  other  economic  changes  which 
are,  in  the  same  way,  vastly  enlarging  the  scope 
of  the  problem  of  the  family,  and  contributing  to 
the  solution  of  a  question  with  which  they  have 
nothing  designedly  to  do.  Each  judicious  invest- 
ment in  well-constructed  dwellings  for  the  poor, 
each  extension  of  suburban  railways  and  reduction 
of  their  rates,  each  encouragement  on  the  part 
of  a  corporation  or  employer  of  permanence  and 
thrift  among  employees,  each  amelioration  of  the 
city's  own  life  by  checking  the  evil  of  drink,  or  by 
multiplying  popular  resources  of  popular  recrea- 
tion, instruction,  and  health,  —  is  a  contribution 
to  domestic  integrity  and  peace.  We  observed  at 
the  outset  that  the  unfolding  history  of  human 
civilization  is  at  each  step  epitomized  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  family ;  we  now  observe  that  the  main- 
tenance of  the  family  provides  a  test  of  the  wisdom 
both  of  economic  movements  and  of  philanthropic 
endeavor. 

Yet  these  economic  rearrangements  and  phil- 
anthropic enterprises,  however  beneficent  they 
may  be,  do  not  disclose  to  us  the  most  funda- 
mental causes  of  .the  problem  of  the  family.  The 
main  sources  of  domestic  instability  are  not  eco- 
nomic, but  moral.  The  problem  of  the  family  is 
not  chiefly  a  result  of  defective  social  arrange- 
ments, but  chiefly  the  result  of  a  defective  social 
creed.  The  truth  of  this  statement  is  at  once 
verified  when  one  recalls  the  fact  that  divorce, 
like  nervous  prostration,  is  a  disease  which  afflicts 


1/2      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  prosperous  more  than  it  does  the  poor.  Temp- 
tation enough,  indeed,  to  promiscuous  living  is 
forced  upon  the  poor  by  the  crowded  conditions 
of  their  life,  yet  one  of  the  most  distinctive  and 
most  touching  characteristics  of  the  poor  is  a 
clinging  conjugal  attachment,  unbroken  by  the 
strain  of  destitution  or  even  of  vice.  Many  a 
well-intentioned  philanthropist  has  tried  to  lift  a 
family  out  of  want  by  separating  the  wife  from 
her  degraded  husband,  and  has  been  dismayed 
and  possibly  offended  by  the  unreasonable  loyalty 
of  the  innocent  to  the  unworthy  partner.  Domes- 
tic instability,  that  is  to  say,  is  not  chiefly  the 
result  of  unpropitious  circumstances,  but  of  un- 
spiritual  and  undomestic  views  of  happiness  and 
success.  It  is  the  consequence,  not  of  a  hard 
life,  but  of  a  soft  creed  ;  its  chief  provocations  are 
not  external,  but  internal ;  and  its  cure  must  begin 
with  a  finer  social  morality  and  a  more  worthy 
conception  of  the  ends  of  human  life.  The  prob- 
lem of  the  family  is  but  one  aspect  of  the  whole 
drift  of  social  standards  and  ideals  in  modern  life ; 
and  the  loosening  of  the  marriage  tie  is,  from  this 
point  of  view,  the  premonition  of  a  general  land- 
slide of  social  morality,  as  in  the  Alps  the  occa- 
sional fall  of  icy  fragments  indicates  a  general 
softening  of  the  crust  which  may  culminate  in 
a  mighty  avalanche. 

Of  such  a  threatening  thaw  of  ethical  standards 
there  are  two  conspicuous  indications  in  modern 
social  life.      One   is   the  interpretation  of  life  in 


THE   FAMILY  1/3 

terms  of  egoism,  and  the  other  is  the  estimation 
of  life  in  terms  of  commercialism.  One  is  the  love 
of  self  and  the  other  is  the  love  of  money.  On 
the  one  hand  is  the  ancient  heresy  which  makes 
one's  self  the  centre  round  which  the  social  world 
revolves, — the  Ptolemaic  philosophy  of  the  selfish 
life ;  on  the  other  hand  is  the  special  temptation 
which  confronts  social  life  at  the  present  time, 
as  a  consequence  of  the  prodigal  productiveness 
and  abundance  of  the  modern  industrial  world. 

Of  the  effect  on  domestic  stability  of  mere  self- 
ishness, whether  in  the  form  of  fleshly  brutality  or 
of  ungenerous  self-consideration,  little  need  be 
said.  The  family,  in  its  very  nature,  represents  a 
transition  from  the  self-considering  to  the  self- 
subordinating  life.  The  individual  yields  his  iso- 
lated self  in  entering  the  social  unity.  A  marriage, 
therefore,  in  which  one  member  assumes  all  the 
rights  and  the  other  performs  all  the  duties  is  not 
a  domestic  relation,  but  a  relation  of  supremacy 
and  servitude ;  a  reversion  of  type  to  one  of  those 
primitive  groups,  patriarchal  it  may  be,  or  matri- 
archal, from  which  the  race  by  the  slow  processes 
of  evolution  has  emerged.  Marriage  in  its  modern 
form  is  the  most  elementary  expression  of  the 
life  in  common. 

Elementary  as  such  a  proposition  would  seem 
to  be,  the  discovery  that  it  is  true  brings  to 
many  persons  a  shock  of  surprise.  Such  persons 
have  imagined  that  domestic  unity  would  endure 
the  brutality  of  passion  or  the  domineering  temper 


174      JESUS  CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

or  the  self-indulgent  complaint  in  which  selfish- 
ness expresses  itself  ;  and  when  they  discover  that 
marriage  involves  mutual  rights  and  mutual  sac- 
rifices, they  chafe  under  these  unanticipated  and 
irksome  restraints.  They  have  thought  of  mar- 
riage as  little  more  than  the  satisfaction  of  lust 
or  of  ambition  or  of  whatever  other  form  self- 
love  may  assume,  and  they  suddenly  find  them- 
selves involved  in  a  moral  situation,  demanding  of 
them  the  continual  exercise  of  those  generous 
instincts  of  which,  perhaps,  their  first  love  was 
full.  Here,  then,  are  indicated  both  the  chief  peril 
and  the  chief  social  function  of  the  institution  of 
the  family.  The  chief  peril  which  besets  the  fam- 
ily is  not  to  be  found  in  imperfect  legislation  or 
inadequate  social  arrangements,  but  in  the  undis- 
ciplined will,  in  the  unsocialized  desire,  in  the 
survival  in  human  life  of  the  instincts  of  the  beast 
of  prey,  the  viper,  or  the  hog.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  chief  social  function  of  the  family  con- 
sists in  the  contribution  which  it  makes  to  the 
socialization  of  the  will.  The  family  sets  the  indi- 
vidual at  birth  in  a  relation  of  altruistic  interest ;  it 
renews  and  matures  this  joy  as  discovered  in  self- 
sacrifice,  when  the  individual  creates  a  new  family 
of  his  own  ;  it  continues  only  as  such  self-discov- 
ery through  self-surrender  becomes  the  law  of  life. 
The  family,  that  is  to  say,  is  not  designed  to  make 
life  easier,  but  to  make  life  better.  It  rests  upon 
the  generous  instincts  of  natural  and  self-forget- 
ting love.     To  contemplate  a  marriage  from  any 


THE   FAMILY  1^5 

Other  point  of  view  is  simply  to  court  disaster. 
Domestic  stability  comes,  not  through  the  domina- 
tion of  one  will  and  the  suppression  of  another, 
but  through  the  discipline  of  each  in  mutual  ser- 
vice, the  giving  and  receiving  of  mutual  correction, 
the  sharing  of  mutual  burdens  and  mutual  joys. 
Such  conditions  necessarily  involve  friction,  ad- 
justment, self-discipline,  and  self-sacrifice ;  but  it 
is  precisely  these  ethical  demands  which  make  the 
chief  contribution  of  the  family  to  the  moral  edu- 
cation of  the  human  race. 

To  the  attack  on  the  integrity  of  the  family 
made  by  sheer  selfishness,  must  be  added  the 
equally  familiar  peril  created  by  the  spirit  of  com- 
mercialism. Money-making  is  in  itself  no  sin.  Few 
desires  in  life  are  more  honorable  or  more  contrib- 
utory to  character  than  the  ambition  to  win  by 
honest  work  enough  money  to  free  one's  self  and 
those  one  loves  from  harassing  and  sordid  cares. 
Commercialism,  however,  estimates  life  in  terms 
of  money,  and  expects  to  get  from  money  blessings 
which  money  cannot  buy.  It  proposes,  among 
other  uses  of  money,  to  buy  an  insurance  on 
domestic  happiness,  as  on  other  commodities.  It 
talks  of  a  "good"  marriage  as  it  talks  of  other 
lucrative  ventures,  though  goodness  may  be  sheer 
badness  except  to  the  trader's  mind.  Yet  no  one 
can  read  the  signs  of  the  times  without  observing 
that  money  and  happiness  are  quite  as  often  found 
apart  as  together.  In  fact,  commercialism  sup- 
plies the  soil  in  which  the  malaria  of  domestic 


1/6      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

infelicity  most  easily  spreads.  The  competitions 
of  trade  are  duplicated  in  the  competitions  of 
social  life ;  the  advertising  habit  reappears  in  the 
habit  of  social  ostentation ;  the  value  of  money  for 
making  money  is  mistaken  for  a  value  in  making 
friends ;  and  finally,  precisely  as  in  the  fluctua- 
tions of  trade,  a  time  of  strain  arrives,  and  the 
home,  like  the  business  firm,  becomes  bankrupt 
and  is  dissolved,  it  is  a  tragic  Nemesis  which 
thus  follows  the  enshrining  of  Mammon  as  one's 
household  god !  Luxury,  long  desired,  brings 
with  it  restlessness;  freedom  from  real  cares  is 
succeeded  by  a  more  exhausting  slavery  to  imagi- 
nary cares ;  "  good "  as  the  marriage  may  have 
seemed  to  be,  it  is  difficult  for  those  joined  in  it 
to  be  good,  and  still  more  difficult  for  children 
born  of  it  to  remain  virile  and  unspoiled ;  finally, 
the  natural  end  of  a  misplaced  ideal  comes  in  one 
overwhelming  shock,  and  the  idol  set  above  the 
family  hearth  falls  from  its  niche  and  crushes  the 
home. 

Nor  is  the  effect  of  commercialism  on  the  family 
to  be  observed  in  the  commercially  successful  alone. 
There  is  a  much  larger  and  much  more  pathetic 
group  of  cases  in  which  domestic  instability  pro- 
ceeds, not  from  prosperity  ill  endured,  but  from 
the  unsatisfied  thirst  for  unattained  prosperity. 
Such  cases  are  affected  by  the  contagion  of  com- 
mercialism, but  have  not  the  experience  which 
fortifies  against  it.  They  imagine  that  ostenta- 
tion and   notoriety  bring  with  them  a  happiness 


THE   FAMILY  1 7/ 

which  simplicity  and  seclusion  miss,  and  that  a 
substitute  for  the  home  may  be  found  in  imitation 
of  the  foolish  rich.  One  of  the  most  startling 
evidences  which  the  pitiful  records  of  the  divorce 
courts  disclose  is  the  fact  that  domestic  instability 
in  the  United  States  prevails  chiefly,  not  among 
the  poor,  or  among  the  foreign  born,  or  the  hand- 
working  class,  but  among  the  ambitious,  commer- 
cialized, migratory  middle  class  of  native-born 
Americans.  It  is,  in  short,  one  incident  of  that 
general  restlessness  of  modern  American  life,  in 
which  the  prizes  of  commercialism  are  the  only 
visible  rewards  of  social  competition.  The  per- 
verted standards  and  ideals  of  the  commercial- 
ized rich  filter  down,  like  the  water  of  an  infected 
spring,  through  the  social  strata,  poisoning  many 
a  life  which  has  no  direct  contact  with  the  tempta- 
tions of  prosperity,  but  is  thirsty  for  satisfactions 
which  the  prosperous  appear  to  enjoy. 

If,  then,  the  self-centred  mind  and  the  commer- 
cialized life  are  sources  of  such  widespread  con- 
tamination, then  the  restoration  of  social  health 
must  begin  in  nothing  less  than  the  purifying  of 
the  prevailing  social  creed.  Family  integrity  can 
no  more  be  insured  by  enactment  or  legislation 
than  the  health  of  a  city  can  be  secured  by  city 
ordinances  while  the  water  supply  is  tainted  at 
its  spring.  The  problem  of  the  family  is  but  one 
aspect  of  the  much  larger  problem  of  socializing 
and  spiritualizing  the  habits  and  aims  of  social 
life.     At  this  point,  however,  and  perhaps  with  a 


1/8      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

certain  surprise,  we  find  ourselves  once  more  con« 
fronted  by  the  social  principles  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Precisely  this  issue,  between  a  selfish  and  mate- 
rialized aim  and  a  socialized  and  spiritual  ideal, 
was  what  lay  before  his  mind,  as  it  now  lies 
before  the  mind  of  the  modern  world  ;  and  then 
as  now  the  crux  of  the  situation  was  seen  to  lie 
in  the  problem  of  the  family.  Jesus  pictured  to 
himself  a  perfect  spiritual  unity  of  social  life, 
which  he  called  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and  of 
that  final  fulfilment  of  his  desire  the  germ  and 
type  were  in  the  unity  of  the  family  group,  where 
the  self-realization  of  each  individual  was  found  in 
loving  self -surrender.  Jesus,  therefore,  with  an 
explicitness  used  in  no  other  case,  announced  defi- 
nite legislation  concerning  the  family.  If  that  ini- 
tial group,  he  seems  to  say,  can  be  established 
in  integrity,  then  within  its  familiar  circle  can 
be  easily  verified  the  principles  of  the  kingdom, 
which  on  a  larger  scale  might  be  obscure.  Yet 
Jesus  did  not  trust  to  such  legislation  to  bring  in 
the  kingdom.  He  surveyed  social  life  from  above, 
with  the  detachment  of  the  idealist ;  and  he 
approached  social  life  from  within,  by  changing, 
not  social  circumstances,  but  human  hearts.  No 
amount  of  social  regulation,  he  knew,  can  assure 
social  stability,  unless  the  interior  ideals  of  individ- 
ual lives  are  cleansed  and  refined  at  their  source. 
Jesus  seeks  therefore,  first  of  all,  the  springs  of  per- 
sonal life,  which  if  left  unclean  are  sure  to  infect 
the  whole   social  stream   into   which    they  flow. 


THE   FAMILY  1 79 

**  Cleanse  first  the  inside  of  the  cup  and  of  the 
platter,  "  ^  he  says  ;  "and  even  now  is  the  axe  laid 
unto  the  root  of  the  trees."  ^  in  short,  as  we  have 
been  led  to  trace  the  remoter  causes  of  the  problem 
of  the  family,  so  finally  we  are  led  to  that  solution 
of  the  problem  which  is  most  characteristic  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  It  is  nothing  less  than  the 
redemption  of  personal  life  from  the  spirit  of 
selfishness  and  from  that  curse  of  commercialism 
which  the  New  Testament  calls  the  love  of  the 
world.  Selfishness  dries  up  the  springs  from 
which  the  stream  of  the  kingdom  flows ;  commer- 
cialism poisons  that  stream  in  its  course.  Where 
the  institution  of  the  family  is  converted  into  an 
instrument  of  self-interest  or  into  a  commercial 
transaction,  it  is  vain  to  hope  for  its  transforma- 
tion by  regulation  from  without ;  where,  on  the 
other  hand,  an  unselfish  temper  and  a  spiritual 
desire  express  themselves  in  domestic  life,  there 
no  problem  of  the  family  is  left  to  solve. 

Must  one,  then,  conclude  that  this  comprehensive 
and  spiritual  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  family 
has  met  with  no  success  ?  Has  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  concerning  the  unselfish  and  unworldly  life 
given  to  the  institution  of  the  family  no  assurance 
of  stability  >  Is  it  true  that  the  very  existence  of 
the  family  is  at  present  seriously  threatened,  and 
that  we  are  likely  soon  to  pass  from  a  period  of 
"family  exclusiveness "  into  an  age  of  domestic 
looseness  or  of  communistic  control  ?  On  the  con- 
1  Matt,  xxiii.  26.  ^  Matt,  iii.  10. 


l80      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

trary,  we  must  answer,  grave  as  are  the  facts  which 
we  have  traced  in  this  chapter,  they  have  no  such 
significance  as  this.  It  is  startUng  enough  to  be 
told  that  out  of  every  thousand  marriages  in  the 
United  States  upward  of  sixty  are  likely  to  end 
in  divorce ;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  out 
of  the  same  thousand,  nine  hundred  and  forty  are 
to  continue  in  some  degree  of  unity  and  love.  An 
epidemic  of  disease  such  as  we  have  traced,  though 
it  be  serious,  still  leaves  the  vast  majority  of  the 
population  uninfected  ;  an  Alpine  avalanche,  though 
it  be  destructive,  still  leaves  the  mountains  strong. 
No  self-deception  could  be  greater  than  that  of  the 
socialist  who  fancies  that  we  are  really  on  the 
brink  of  a  general  break-up  of  the  family  system. 
No  literature  could  be  more  untrue  to  the  main 
movement  of  modern  thought  than  the  books  and 
dramas  which  take  for  granted  that  licentious 
imaginings  and  adulterous  joys  have  displaced  in 
modern  society  pure  romance  and  wholesome  love. 
The  eddies  of  dirty  froth  which  float  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  stream  of  social  life  and  mar  its  clear- 
ness are  not  the  signs  which  indicate  its  current. 
Beneath  these  signs  of  domestic  restlessness 
the  main  body  of  social  life  is  yet  untainted,  and 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  unselfishness  and 
unworldliness  is  practically  verified  in  multitudes 
of  unobserved  and  unpolluted  homes. 

What  is  a  Christian  family  ?  It  is  not  an  extraor- 
dinarily angelic  or  ascetic  group.  It  is  simply 
a  domestic  group  in  which  the  spiritual  ends  of 


THE   FAMILY  l8l 

marriage  are  not  obscured  either  by  uncontrolled 
selfishness  or  by  contaminating  commercialism. 
Such  a  marriage  has  been  created  by  the  natural 
leadings  of  a  pure  love,  and  this  single-minded 
affection  becomes  a  permanent  instinct  of  life. 
A  Christian  marriage  expects  to  have  its  friction 
of  interests  and  its  moments  of  turbulence,  like  a 
stream  that  has  its  rapids  and  its  falls ;  but  these 
incidents  do  not  block  the  movement  of  life,  and 
the  stream  of  love  grows  deeper  and  more  tranquil 
as  it  flows.  A  Christian  family  does  not  forfeit 
its  simplicity,  genuineness,  and  interior  resources 
when  it  becomes  prosperous,  or  find  itself  stripped 
of  the  essentials  of  happiness  when  it  becomes 
poor.  In  a  Christian  home  the  discipline  of  chil- 
dren is  not  so  much  a  work  of  exhortation  as  of 
contagion.  The  prevailing  climate  of  unaffected 
idealism  strengthens  the  moral  constitution  of  the 
child.  Thus  the  Christian  family  gets  its  unity 
and  stability,  not  by  outward  regulation,  but  by 
the  natural  processes  of  its  inward  life.  It  has  its 
troubles,  and  they  draw  hearts  together.  It  has 
its  joys,  and  they  are  multiplied  by  being  shared. 
When,  finally,  the  children  of  that  family  grow  up 
to  hear  of  larger  truths,  —  truths  of  the  kingdom 
and  of  the  Father  in  heaven,  and  of  the  son  for 
whose  return  the  Father  is  waiting,  — then  they  in- 
terpret these  great  mysteries  of  the  eternal  world, 
as  Jesus  prompted  them  to  do,  in  the  language  of 
their  own  loving  and  united  home.  Are  there  many 
such  Christian  families  ?     Millions,  we  confidently 


1 82      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

answer.  This  is  the  normal  type  of  the  civilized 
home.  The  teaching  of  Jesus,  so  slightly  accepted 
in  many  ways  of  life,  has  actually  taken  firm  root 
in  the  soil  of  the  family.  If  Jesus  should  come 
again,  and  consider  the  obvious  effects  of  his  teach- 
ing on  the  habits  of  social  life,  he  would  perhaps 
find  no  change  so  dramatic  as  that  which  is  to  be  ob- 
served in  the  coherence  and  mutual  devotion  of  the 
modern  home.  To  the  vast  majority  of  any  modern 
community,  the  problem  of  the  family  is  but  a  re- 
mote and  uninteresting  sign  of  the  time,  heard  by 
them  as  the  roar  of  the  ocean  is  heard  by  dwellers 
inland,  reporting  to  them  a  storm  far  out  at  sea. 
Homes  enough  there  are,  as  we  have  seen,  wrecked 
in  such  storms,  and  lives  enough  which  are  tossed 
on  rough  waters  with  nothing  that  can  be  called 
a  home  to  hold  them  up,  but  the  continent  of  our 
civilization  is  not  seriously  threatened  by  the  en- 
croaching sea.  The  pure  love  which  creates  a 
stable  family  still  sanctifies  multitudes  of  such 
homes,  set  far  back  from  the  stormy  agitations  of 
the  time ;  and  among  such  homes  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  enters  from  day  to  day,  as  one  day  he  came 
to  the  newly  married  pair  at  Cana,  and  changes  the 
water  of  commonplace  and  prose  into  the  wine  of 
romance  and  joy. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  CONCERNING  THE  RICH 

f^obj  fjatlJlg  sfjall  tl)fs  tljat  ijaiJf  xicljts  enter  inia  t!je  ftinflti0m  ot 
6otJ! 

WL\)a,  tfjen,  is  t\jt  faitf}ful  antr  toise  stchjarti  tofjom  IjiH  lorU  s!)all 
get  obcr  Jjis  fjouscljoHi?  .  .  .  BlesseU  is  tljat  servant,  .  ♦  .  of  a 
tnit!},  ije  toill  set  ijim  ober  all  tljat  ije  ijatlj ! 

We  pass  from  the  innermost  circle  of  social 
relationship  —  the  family — and  find  ourselves  in 
a  larger  but  concentric  circle.  At  the  centre  the 
individual  is  inquiring  concerning  his  place  and 
function  in  the  social  order,  but  round  him  now 
sweeps  the  life  of  a  community,  made  up  of 
many  families  associated  in  the  complexity  of  the 
modern  world.  No  sooner  does  the  individual 
contemplate  this  larger  circle  environing  his  life, 
than  a  new  social  problem  confronts  him.  He 
observes  the  extreme  diversity  of  social  conditions 
which  each  such  community  represents.  Some 
of  these  families  are  hungry,  for  food  or  for  work, 
and  some,  on  the  other  hand,  seem  overburdened 
by  superfluous  possessions.  Some  of  these  homes 
are  tempted  by  their  poverty,  and  some  by  their 
prosperity.  The  individual  looks  about  him  at 
the  scene  presented  by  the  modern  distribution 
of  wealth,  and   it    is   not   a   peaceful   or   sunny 

183 


184      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

prospect.  About  him  lie,  it  is  true,  great  tracts 
of  general  prosperity,  a  rolling  country  with  gen- 
tle undulations  of  greater  or  less  possessions ;  but 
in  the  midst  of  this  smiling  landscape  rise  a  few 
abrupt  and  overshadowing  peaks,  making  more 
sombre  and  sunless  the  deep  caftons  of  incom- 
petency and  want  which  lie  between.  It  is  a 
spectacle  abounding  in  suggestions  of  pathos, 
not  unmingled  with  an  element  of  irony.  Each 
extreme  of  this  diversity  involves  its  own  special 
peril;  each  social  type — the  dwellers  on  the 
heights  and  those  who  never  see  the  sun  —  has 
its  own  temptations ;  each  type  tends  to  become 
isolated  and  fixed  in  its  conditions;  yet  within 
each  type  there  are  groups  which  have  a  curious 
kinship  in  habit  and  needs.  On  the  one  hand  is 
the  group  of  the  unemployed  and  laboriously  idle 
rich,  and  on  the  other  hand  is  the  group  of  the  un- 
employed and  professionally  idle  poor.  The  two 
groups  have  much  in  common.  Each  is  a  detach- 
ment of  what  is  known  as  the  army  of  the  unem- 
ployed. Each  is  characterized  by  loss  of  respect 
for  work.  Each,  therefore,  has  its  share  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  revolutionary  agitation  of  the 
time.  The  instruments  of  this  revolt  are  likely 
to  be  found  among  the  exasperated  poor;  but 
the  provocation  to  revolt  is  likely  to  proceed 
from  the  unemployed  and  self-indulgent  rich,  the 
spenders  of  that  which  others  have  gained,  the 
persons  of  whom  Mr.  Ruskin  said  that  their  wealth 
should  be  called  their  "ill-th,"  because  it  is   not 


THE   RICH  185 

well,  but  ill,  with  their  souls.  Thus,  while  the 
main  current  of  social  life  is  healthy  and  free,  its 
motion  has  thrown  up  upon  the  surface  a  kind  of 
life  which  may  be  described  as  social  froth,  and 
has  deposited  at  its  bottom  another  kind  of  life 
which  may  be  described  as  social  sediment ;  and 
who  shall  say  which  is  the  more  threatening  social 
peril, — the  submerged  poor  or  the  light-minded 
rich;  the  restlessness  of  the  social  sediment,  or 
the  thoughtlessness  of  the  social  froth? 

It  should  be  noticed  that  this  diversity  of  social 
condition,  which  appears  to  create  a  new  social 
question,  is  not  itself  a  new  situation  or  one  of 
unprecedented  gravity.  On  the  contrary,  one  of 
the  most  obvious  facts  of  modern  civilization  is 
the  enormous  advance  in  general  prosperity  and 
in  purchasing  power  of  every  social  class.  It  is 
by  no  means  true  that  as  the  rich  grow  richer  the 
poor  are  growing  poorer.  The  concentration  of 
great  wealth  in  a  few  hands  is  accompanied  by  an 
extraordinary  distribution  of  comfort  among  many 
millions,  so  that  conveniences  and  resources,  which 
two  generations  ago  were  the  luxuries  of  the  few, 
have  come  to  be  within  easy  reach  of  the  hum- 
blest. This  progress  in  general  prosperity  had" 
not,  however,  been  a  uniform  progress.  While^ 
the  rich  have  been  growing  richer,  the  poor  have 
been  growing  less  poor,  but  they  have  not  main- 
tained the  same  pace  of  progress.  Thus,  while 
general  progress  may  be  admitted  to  be  real,  it 
may  be  still  indicted  as  inequitable,  and  it  is  this 


1 86      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

sense  of  inequity  which  gives  to  the  present  social 
situation  its  specific  character.  It  is  not  true  that 
the  hand-working  class  have  less,  but  it  is  true 
that  they  know  and  feel  and  desire  more.  Thus,  the 
\modern  social  question  is  one  fruit  of  the  education 
of  the  masses.  It  is  not  a  sign  of  social  decadence, 
but  a  sign  of  social  progress.  **  The  people  had  been 
made  blind,  like  Samson,"  remarks  Mr.  Graham, 
"the  better  to  toil  without  being  dangerous.  .  .  . 
In  1870  it  was  felt  .  .  .  that  a  measure  of  educa- 
tion was  necessary  and  politic,  and  Lord  Sher- 
brooke  (then  Mr.  Robert  Lowe)  expressed  a  very 
general  feeling  in  his  well-known  aphorism,  *We 
must  educate  our  masters.'  "^ 

In  such  a  situation,  however,  the  social  question 
presents  itself  in  a  much  more  radical  form  than 
it  has,  under  other  conditions,  assumed.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  economic  reforms  or  philanthropic 
schemes.  It  considers  the  very  existence  of  these 
extremes  of  condition.  Ought  there  to  be  any 
such  types  in  social  life  as  the  rich  and  the  poor  ? 
Is  the  possession  of  wealth  on  any  terms  justifi- 
able.? Is  poverty  by  any  means  eradicable.?  Is 
a  social  order  just  and  rational  which  permits  great 
accumulation  of  wealth  in  single  hands  ?  If  not, 
shall  not  a  new  social  order  be  established,  where 
the  valleys  of  social  life  shall  be  exalted  and  its 
mountains  and  hills  brought  low  ?  We  speak  of  a 
rich  man  as  being  "  worth  "  a  certain  sum.  How 
much,  asks  the  modern  spirit,  is  a  rich  man  in  fact 
1  Graham,  "The  Social  Problem,"  1886,  pp.  23,  25. 


THE  RICH  187 

worth  ?  Is  he  worth  what  he  costs  ?  In  a  time 
when  the  majority  have  the  power,  but  have  not 
the  wealth,  is  it  not  possible,  either  by  legislation 
or  by  revolution,  greatly  to  restrict  or  hamper  the 
accumulation  and  perpetuation  of  wealth  ?  May 
not  the  way  of  the  rich,  like  that  of  the  trans- 
gressor, be  made  very  hard  ?  If  the  private  owner- 
ship of  wealth  brings  with  it  no  public  utility,  or 
if,  still  worse,  it  turns  out  to  be  a  source  of  demor- 
alization, are  there  not  ways  of  dealing  with  it  as 
one  deals  with  any  common  nuisance,  so  that  it 
may  be  in  large  degree  abated  ? 

Thus  the  modern  social  question  tests  the  institu- 
tion of  private  property  by  its  contribution  to  the 
public  good.  Does  it  foster  a  quality  of  social  life 
which  is  worth  perpetuating  ?  Does  money-getting 
fulfil  a  moral  purpose  ?  Is  it,  on  the  whole,  best  that 
the  way  to  wealth  shall  be  left  open  toward  the  top, 
so  that  a  man  who  has  the  gift  for  getting  rich  may 
have  all  the  benefits  of  that  gift ;  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  ought  rich  people  to  be  abolished,  because  it 
is  impossible  to  be  both  rich  and  good  ?  What  is 
this  fact  of  diversity  of  condition  in  modern  social 
life,  but  a  challenge  to  the  poor  to  use  their  power, 
like  a  Samson  who  is  no  longer  blind,  to  drag  down 
the  pillars  of  a  perverted  civilization  ? 

Such  are  the  questions  which,  often  with  bitter- 
ness, often  with  apprehension,  are  being  asKed  by 
the  present  age.  Wealth  is  brought  to  the  test 
of  utility.  If  it  cannot  be  proved  to  fulfil  some 
public  service,  then  it  is  very  probably  digging  its 


1 88      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

own  grave.  With  such  questions,  then,  we  turn 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  at  once  we 
are  confronted  by  those  principles  of  his  teaching 
which  in  their  general  form  we  have  already  re- 
called. Jesus  views  the  social  order  from  above, 
in  the  horizon  of  the  purposes  of  God ;  he  ap- 
proaches the  social  order  from  within,  through  the 
awakening  of  individual  capacity;  he  judges  the 
social  order  in  its  end,  as  a  means  to  the  kingdom 
of  the  Father.  What  has  Jesus,  then,  to  say  of 
the  contrast  which  was  conspicuous  in  his  time, 
as  it  is  in  ours,  between  wealth  and  poverty? 
Does  the  possession  of  wealth  appear  to  Jesus 
likely  to  make  that  kind  of  man  who  in  his  turn 
may  help  the  kingdom }  May  a  rich  man  be  an 
accepted  follower  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Or  is  poverty, 
on  the  other  hand,  of  the  essence  of  Christian 
discipleship,  and  is  a  rich  man  necessarily  shut  out 
of  the  kingdom }  What  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
concerning  the  rich  ?  ^ 

No  sooner  does  one  ask  these  questions  than  he 
recalls  the  reiterated  and  unmitigated  language  of 
warning  and  rebuke  with  which  Jesus  addressed 
the  prosperous.  "  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  !  "  ^  "Woe 
unto  you  that  are  rich  ; "  "  Blessed  are  ye  poor ;"  ^ 
"  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  the 
earth;"*     "For  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 

*  See  also  Christian  Register^  January  5,  1893,  F.  G.  Peabody, 
"The  Problem  of  Rich  Men." 

*  Mark  x.  23.  *  Luke  vi.  20,  24.  *  Matt.  vi.  19. 


THE  RICH  189 

abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth;"^ 
*'  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon ; "  ^  "  It  is 
easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  a  needle's  eye, 
than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God."  3  Few  modern  agitators,  urging  the  dispos- 1 
sessed  poor  to  resist  their  oppressors,  have  ever 
ventured  upon  stronger  language  than  this  ;  few, 
indeed,  have  gone  so  far  as  to  say  to  their  fol- 
lowers :  "  Sell  all  that  thou  hast,  .  .  .  and  come, 
follow  me."*  It  is  not  surprising  that  such  say- 
ings have  been  greeted  as  conclusive  testimony 
concerning  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  as  establish- 
ing his  place  in  history  as  the  great  forerunner 
of  modern  protests  against  the  industrial  sys- 
tem which  is  based  on  private  capital.  "When 
Jesus,"  it  is  confidently  asserted,  "says,  'Lay  not 
up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth,'  he  shows 
himself  on  ethical  grounds  a  radical  opponent  of 
all  accumulation  of  wealth."^  "The  democracy  of 
property,  which  is  the  larger  revelation  of  Christ, 
.  .  .  is  the  condemnation  of  the  wage-system."^ 
"  If  the  man  who  best  represents  the  ideas  of  early 
Christians  were  to  enter  a  respectable  society 
to-day,  would  it  not  be  likely  to  send  for  the  po- 
lice ? "  7  "  The  practice  of  the  preacher-carpenter 
who  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head,  who  is  not  re- 

1  Luke  xii.  15.  '  Matt.  xix.  24. 

2  Matt.  vi.  24.  *  Luke  xviii.  22. 

*  Naumann,  «  Was  heisst  Christlich-Sozial  ?  "  s.  9. 

•  Herron,  "The  New  Redemption,"  p.  63. 

7  Leslie  Stephen,  "  Social  Rights  and  Duties,"  I,  21  (quoted  b^ 
Mathews,  "Social  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  149  [note]). 


190      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

corded  as  having  possessed  a  single  coin,  who  had 
nothing  to  leave  his  mother,  and  whose  grave  was 
borrowed  from  a  friend,  accords  fully  with  the  mes- 
sage he  delivered."^ 

Estimates  like  these  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
must  not  be  lightly  dismissed.  There  is  no  way 
of  breaking  the  force  of  these  solemn  sayings  of 
the  gospels  concerning  the  deceitfulness  of  riches, 
or  of  eliminating  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  his 
stern  warnings  to  the  prosperous  and  his  beauti- 
^  ful  compassion  for  the  poor.  Is  it  possible,  how- 
ever, that  so  obvious  and  so  limited  a  message 
as  this,  a  teaching  so  slightly  distinguishable 
V  from  the  curbstone  rhetoric  of  a  modern  agitator, 
.  can  be  an  adequate  reproduction  of  the  scope  and 
power  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  ?  Is  it  not,  on  the 
contrary,  more  probable  that  we  have  here  a  new 
illustration  of  that  easy  literalism  which  through 
all  Christian  history  has  distorted  and  limited  the 
teaching  of  the  gospel.^  No  vagary  or  extrava- 
gance of  opinion  has  been  too  extreme  to  claim  for 
itself  the  authority  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  or  to 
fortify  that  claim  through  a  fragmentary  and  hap- 
hazard eclecticism.  The  gospels,  however,  are 
not  a  series  of  disconnected  aphorisms ;  they  are 
the  record  of  a  continuous  life,  whose  complete 
intention  is  not  disclosed  in  single  incidents  or 
detached  sayings,  but  reveals  itself  in  the  general 

1  Article  in  The  Outlook,  December  10,  1898.  Compare  also 
O.  Holtzmann,  "Jesus  Christus  und  das  Gemeinschaftsleben  det 
I^enschen,"  1893,  s.  17  ff, 


THE   RICH  191 

habit  and  movement  of  the  Teacher's  mind.  If, 
then,  one  seriously  desires  to  know  what  Jesus 
thought  about  the  rich  and  the  poor,  he  must 
scrutinize,  compare,  and  weigh  the  scattered  say- 
ings of  the  gospel  and  derive  from  them  a  general 
impression  of  the  life  which  gave  authority  to  the 
teaching ;  and  as  he  thus  passes  from  the  letter 
of  the  gospel  to  its  spirit,  there  may  perhaps 
disclose  itself  a  scope  and  character  of  teaching 
which  no  isolated  saying  adequately  represents, 
but  which,  the  more  one  examines  it,  draws  the 
learner  to  the  Teacher  with  a  profounder  impres- 
sion of  reverent  awe.^ 

As  one  thus  approaches  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
concerning  the  rich,  he  is,  first  of  all,  confronted 
by  an  extraordinary  difference  of  emphasis  in  the 
different  evangelists.^      The  fourth  gospel  hardly 

I8ter  Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1897,  Wendt,  "Das  Eigentum  nach 
christlicher  Beurteilung,"  s.  10,  "  A  trustworthy  Christian  judgment 
concerning  property  is  to  be  derived,  not  from  single  Biblical  utter- 
ances or  parables,  but  from  the  fundamental  principles  and  religious 
conceptions  of  Jesus." 

2  On  these  notable  differences  of  social  teaching  see,  on  the 
one  hand,  Keim,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  III,  284,  "We  have  [in 
Luke]  gross,  naked  Ebionitism."  .  .  .  "The  naked  doctrine  of 
poverty."  IV.  81,  "In  the  glorification  ...  of  poverty  as  such 
...  we  have  the  direct  reverse  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus."  More 
moderately,  H.  Holtzmann,  "  Die  ersten  Christen  und  die  soziale 
Frage,"  s.  44,  "The  view  of  Jesus  is  of  the  peril  of  riches  ;  .  .  .  the 
view  of  the  third  Gospel  is  that  riches  are  in  themselves  disgraceful, 
and  poverty  in  itself  saving."  On  the  other  hand,  Renan,  "Life 
of  Jesus"  (tr.  Allen),  Ch.  XI,  "The  Gospel  in  his  [Jesus]  thought 
of  it,  is  for  the  poor."  The  Ebionitic  note  of  the  third  gospel  is 
emphasized,  perhaps  with  exaggeration,  by  Colin  Campbell,  "  Criti- 


192      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

touches  the  question  of  material  possessions  at  all. 
It  moves  in  quite  another  world,  —  a  world  of 
lofty  philosophy,  spiritual  biography,  and  Divine 
communion.  With  the  exception  of  two  unim- 
portant passages^  the  very  words  "rich,"  "poor," 
"wealth,"  "poverty,"  "to  be  rich,"  "to  be  poor," 
do  not  occur  either  in  the  fourth  gospel  or  in  the 
Johannine  epistles.  The  second  gospel  also, — 
though  for  opposite  reasons  —  offers  practically 
no  material  concerning  poverty  or  wealth  which 
does  not  also  present  itself  either  in  Matthew  or 
Luke,  or  in  both.  The  fourth  gospel  loses  sight 
of  these  human  interests  in  its  flight  of  spiritual 
meditation ;  the  second  gospel  hastens  by  these 
general  problems  of  social  life  in  its  absorbed  and 
concise  records  of  the  words  and  acts  of  Jesus. 
Thus  the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  social  con- 
ditions must  be  sought  almost  wholly  in  the  gos- 
pels of  Matthew  and  Luke ;  and  here  we  come  upon 
abundant  material. 

Yet  here  also  we   meet  a  still  more  striking 

t 

cal  Studies  in  Luke's  Gospel,"  1891,  Ch.  II.  Compare,  Plummer, 
"  Commentary  on  Luke,"  1896,  p.  xxv.  "  Is  there  any  Ebionism  in 
St.  Luke  ?  That  Luke  is  profoundly  impressed  by  the  contrast 
between  wealth  and  poverty  ...  is  true  enough.  But  this  is  not 
Ebionism.  He  nowhere  teaches  that  wealth  is  sinful  and  that  rich 
men  must  give  away  all  their  wealth,  or  that  the  wealthy  may  be 
spoiled  by  the  poor."  Observe  also  the  discussions  of  B.  Weiss, 
"Life  of  Christ,"  Book  I,  Ch.  IV,  V ;  J.  Estlin  Carpenter,  "The 
First  Three  Gospels,  their  Origin  and  Relations,"  1897,  Ch.VIII-X  ; 
and  especially  the  painstaking  and  convincing  study  of  Rogge,  "  Der 
irdische  Besitz  im  N.  T.,"  1897,  s.  9  ff. 
1  John  xii.  5 ;  xiii.  29. 


THE   RICH  193 

difference.  In  the  first  place,  while  the  record 
of  the  two  gospels  is  often  obviously  identical 
in  origin,  it  happens  in  almost  every  instance 
that,  where  Matthew  and  Luke  report  the  same 
incident  or  saying  concerning  the  rich  or  the 
poor,  the  passage  in  Luke  takes  a  severer  or  more 
universal  form  of  condemnation  of  the  one  class, 
or  of  commendation  of  the  other.  Where  Matthew 
says,  "  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee  "  (to)  alTovvrl 
ae  ho^)}  Luke  says :  **  Give  to  every  one  "  {iravri 
alrovvTi  ae  BiSov);^  where  Matthew  says,  "Sell 
that  thou  hast  "  {TrcoXrjaov  ra  vTrdp^ovra),  ^  (Mark, 
oaa  e^et?),  Luke  says,  ** Sell  all  that  thou  hast" 
(TTCLvra  oaa  €%et9  irwkrja-ov)}  Where  the  beatitude  in 
Matthew  reads  :  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,"  ^ 
Luke  says,  "Blessed  are  ye  poor,"^  and  reen- 
forces  this  modification  with  the  added  phrase, 
"  But  woe  unto  you  that  are  rich  !  "  ^  Where  Mat- 
thew says,  "But  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures 
in  heaven,"  ^  Luke  says,  "  Sell  that  ye  have,  and 
give  aims."^  According  to  Matthew  there  are 
brought  to  the  great  supper  both  bad  and  good,^^ 
but  in  Luke  the  Lord  of  the  supper  says,  "  Bring 
in  hither  ,  the  poor  and  maimed  and  blind  and 
lame."  ^^  To  this  marked  difference  of  emphasis 
must  be  added  the  further  fact  that  the  most 
radical  teachings  and  illustrations  concerning  the 

1  Matt.  V.  42.  *  Matt.  v.  3.  »  Luke  xii.  33. 

2  Luke  vi.  30.  *  Luke  vi.  20.  ^°  Matt.  xxii.  10. 
«  Matt.  xix.  21.  "^  Luke  vi.  24.  "  Luke  xiv.  21. 
*  Luke  xviii.  22.  ®  Matt.  vi.  20, 


194      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

perils  of  wealth  are  to  be  found  in  the  third  gos- 
pel alone.  Here  appear  the  story  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus,^  of  the  foolish  rich  man,^  of  the  unjust 
steward,^  and  the  conversation  about  inheritance.* 
It  is  in  Luke  alone  that  the  prophetic  word  is 
utilized  :  **  And  the  rich  he  hath  sent  empty 
away."^  In  short,  between  Matthew  and  Luke 
there  is  as  marked  a  difference  of  teaching  as  may 
be  found  in  modern  literature  between  the  teach- 
ing of  an  earnest  philanthropist  and  the  teaching 
of  a  socialist  agitator.  It  is  quite  within  the  truth 
to  speak  of  Luke  as  the  "sociaHst-evangelist."^ 

What  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  probable  cause  of 
this  striking  peculiarity  of  the  third  gospel  ?  The 
most  obvious  interpretation  which  suggests  itself 
is  that  the  character  of  the  gospel  reflects  the 
character  of  its  author.  Luke,  it  is  said,  like  Paul, 
with  whom  he  lived  and  taught,  had  a  larger  social 
experience  and  a  keener  human  sympathy  than 
the  other  evangelists:  His  mind,  therefore,  seized 
on  the  radical  sayings  of  Jesus  in  their  original 
sternness  of  tone,  where  Matthew  softened  and 
spiritualized  such  words  into  conformity  with  pro- 
vincial habits  of  mind.  Thus,  the  socialist-evan- 
gelist best  understood  his  Master,  and  the  teaching 

1  Luke  xvi.  20.  *  Luke  xvi.  1-13.  *  Luke  i.  53. 

2  Luke  xii.  16-21.  *  Luke  xii.  13. 

®  Rogge,  p.  10  (citing  H.  Holtzmann  in  *'  Prot.  Kirchenzeitung," 
1894).  But  compare,  also,  as  diminishing  the  significance  of  these 
contrasts,  the  comment  on  the  general  habit  of  mind  of  Luke,  in 
Plumraer,  "  Commentary  on  Luke,"  p.  Ixii. 


THE   RICH  195 

of  Jesus  concerning  the  rich   is  to   be  found   in 
Luke. 

This  view  of  the  relation  of  the  gospels,  how- 
ever, leaves  out  of  account  several  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant aspects  of  the  New  Testament.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  general  prin- 
ciple of  criticism,  that  of  two  readings  of  equal 
external  authority  the  more  spiritual  reading  is 
the  more  likely  to  reproduce  the  Master's  words. 
Other  things  being  equal,  it  is  not  probable  that 
the  more  obvious  meaning  is  original,  and  that  the 
more  spiritual  signification  is  superimposed.  Of 
the  two  readings,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit," 
and  "Blessed  are  ye  poor,"  it  is  on  the  face  of 
things  not  likely  that  the  peculiar  depth  and 
beauty  of  the  truth  which  the  first  passage 
expresses  should  be  a  gloss  upon  the  superficial, 
not  to  say  the  questionable,  teaching  of  the  second 
passage.  Further,  without  undertaking  to  enter 
elaborately  into  the  much  debated  problem  of  the 
Paulinism  of  the  third  gospel,  it  is  obvious  that, 
in  the  attitude  of  that  gospel  toward  poverty  and 
wealth,  we  meet  a  characteristic  which  is  very 
remote  from  the  habitual  teaching  and  example  of 
Paul.  To  regard  poverty  as  in  any  degree  a  test 
for  admittance  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  to  dis- 
criminate against  the  prosperous  simply  because  of 
their  prosperity,  is  quite  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
the  robust,  sagacious,  and  independent  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles,  He  perceives,  it  is  true,  that  "  Not 
many  wise,^    ,    .    .    ,    not    many    mighty,   not 


196      JESUS  CHRIST   AND   THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

many  noble,  are  called;"^  but  it  is  not  a  part 
of  his  purpose  to  reproach  the  rich  or  to  identify 
holiness  with  poverty.  For  his  own  part  he  will 
be,  he  says,  a  charge  to  no  man.  **  For  ye  remem- 
ber, brethren,  our  labour  and  travail :  working  night 
and  day,  that  we  might  not  burden  any  of  you."  ^ 
It  is  true  that  Paul  regards  it  a  despising  of  the 
Church  of  God  to  "  put  them  to  shame  that  have 
not;"  3  and  that  he  urges  contentment  with  what 
one  has ;  *  yet  he  has  a  place  for  the  rich  also  in 
the  world  of  Christian  service.  Within  the 
churches  which  he  organizes  there  are  disciples 
prosperous  enough  to  undertake  missionary  con- 
tributions. "So,  then,  as  we  have  opportunity," 
Paul  says  to  them,  "  let  us  work  that  which  is  good 
toward  all  men,  and  especially  toward  them  that 
are  of  the  household  of  the  faith."  ^  "  God  loveth 
a  cheerful  giver."  ^  He  welcomes  missionary  gifts 
from  the  church  at  Philippi  as  a  sacrifice  "accept- 
able, well-pleasing  to  God."^  He  bids  Timothy 
to  charge  the  rich  "  that  they  do  good,  that  they 
be  rich  in  good  works."®  Finally,  in  his  most 
comprehensive  statement  of  Christian  character, 
he  explicitly  announces  that  the  abandonment  of 
possessions  does  not  necessarily  indicate  holiness. 
"And  if  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the 
poor,  .  .  .  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth 
me  nothing."^    Here  is  a  habit  of  mind  so  dif- 

1  I  Cor.  i.  26.  *  Phil.  iv.  11.  ^  phii.  jy.  18. 

2  I  Thess.  ii.  9.  *  Gal.  vi.  10.  »  i  Tim.  vi.  18. 
'  I  Cor.  xi.  22.                 •  2  Cor.  ix.  7.              "  i  Cor.  xiii.  3, 


THE   RICH  197 

ferent  from  that  which  is  illustrated  in  many  pas- 
sages of  the  third  gospel,  that  so  far  as  this  single 
problem  of  the  right  to  property  has  any  bearing 
on  the  general  question  of  relationship  between 
Luke  and  Paul,  it  certainly  seems  to  indicate  no 
close  kinship  of  spirit  or  aim. 

There  is  another  and  more  general  point  of  view 
from  which  this  contrast  between  Luke  and  Paul 
may  be  considered.  When  we  scrutinize  the  New 
Testament  as  a  whole  we  observe  that  the  same 
line  of  cleavage  which  is  to  be  noticed  between 
the  third  gospel  and  the  epistles  of  Paul  appears 
to  run  between  other  books  also,  and  divides  the 
literature  of  the  New  Testament  into  two  general 
groups.  With  the  third  gospel  seem  to  group 
themselves  the  introductory  chapters  of  the  book 
of  Acts  and  the  epistle  of  James ;  and  with  Paul's 
epistles  the  gospels  of  Matthew  and  of  Mark.  A 
situation  thus  presents  itself  which  is  in  sharp  con- 
trast with  the  usual  grouping  of  New  Testament 
books,  and  of  which  New  Testament  criticism  has 
thus  far  taken  but  small  account.  The  first  gospel, 
for  instance,  is  beyond  question  colored  in  many 
respects  by  the  Palestinian  tradition,  and  the 
third  gospel  is,  in  general,  adapted  to  Gentile 
readers;  but  when  we  examine  the  social  teach- 
ing of  the  two  there  is  exhibited  a  reversal  of 
these  relationships,  and  the  first  gospel  rather 
than  the  third  appears  to  free  itself  from  the 
pressing  trials  of  Palestinian  poverty  and  relief. 
Into  the  interesting  critical  question  thus  opened 


1 98      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

it  is  not  possible  here  to  enter,  but  the  general 
line  of  cleavage  is  not  easy  to  mistake.^  The 
book  of  Acts  begins  in  a  tone  of  lofty  ecstasy, 
prompted  by  that  confident  belief  in  an  imminent 
cosmic  catastrophe  which  made  the  first  disciples 
indifferent  to  social  conditions  or  social  change. 
They  testified  to  their  freedom  from  the  ordinary 
limitations  of  life  by  their  gift  of  tongues,^  and 
they  expressed  their  indifference  to  social  distinc- 
tions by  having  "all  things  common." ^  The 
epistle  of  James  goes  beyond  indifference  to 
possessions  and  positively  indicts  the  prosperous 
as  sinners.  Its  language  is  that  of  unsparing 
attack  and  bitter  irony.  "  Go  to  now,  ye  rich," 
concludes  this  most  radical  of  New  Testament 
writers,  "weep  and  howl  for  your  miseries  that 
are  coming  upon  you."*  On  the  other  hand,  the 
first  two  gospels  move  in  a  world  of  tranquil 
and  unimpassioned  narrative,  less  virile  in  teach- 
ings concerning  worldly  independence  than  the 
self-respecting  judgments  of  Paul,  but  exhibiting 
no  rigid  discrimination  between  social  classes.^ 

What  does  this  general  contrast  among  New 
Testament  books  indicate  as  to  the  prevailing 
conditions  of  primitive  Christian  life }  It  reminds 
us  of  that  contrast  of  social  condition  and  habit 

1  On  this  distinction  of  New  Testament  Books,  see  the  interesting 
discussion  of  Rogge  (<?/.  ci/.),  s.  68  flf. 

2  Acts  ii.  4.  8  Acts  ii.  44.  *  James  v.  i. 

*  See  the  essay  of  Th.  Zahn,  "  Die  soziale  Frage  und  die  innere 
Mission  nach  dem  Briefe  des  Jakobus,"  in  his  "Skizze  aus  dem 
Leben  der  alten  Kirche,"  1898,  s.  93. 


THE   RICH  199 

of  mind  which,  as  has  been  frequently  observed, 
existed  between  the  Palestinian  and  the  Gen- 
tile communities.  The  disciples  at  Jerusalem,  in 
the  lofty  enthusiasm  of  their  first  fellowship, 
threw  down  the  barriers  of  ownership  as  they  did 
those  of  language,  and  had  one  speech  and  one 
purse.  It  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  not  a 
prearranged  and  institutional  communism,  but, 
as  Peter  expressly  calls  it,^  a  voluntary  sharing  of 
what  was  needed.  While  it  remained,  it  remained 
one's  own,  and  when  it  was  sold  it  was  still  in 
one's  power.  Even  this  relation,  however,  was  one 
which  could  not  be  realized  in  an  enlarging  Church. 
As  we  proceed  in  the  book  of  Acts  itself,  the  social 
types  associating  themselves  with  the  new  religion 
become  more  and  more  varied,  until  persons  of  every 
social  condition,  Pharisees  ^  and  fishermen,^  the 
treasurer  of  Candace,*  the  proconsul  Paulus,^  Dio- 
nysius  the  Areopagite,^  Crispus,^  the  head  of  a 
Jewish  synagogue,  together  with  many  who  must  be 
cared  for  by  alms  from  "the  daily  ministration,"^ 
come  into  view  as  acceptable  members  of  Christian 
congregations. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  inevitable  effect  upon 
the  congregations  of  Palestine  of  the  social  teach- 
ing represented  by  the  epistle  of  James.  The 
less  honorable  poor  flocked,  it  would  seem,  with 
the  devout  to  such  communities,  until  at  last  the 

1  Acts  V.  4.  *  Acts  viii.  27.  ^  Acts  xviii.  8. 

2  Acts  xxiii.  6.  *  Acts  xiii.  7.  ^  Acts  vi.  i, 
«  Matt.  iv.  18.               ®  Acts  xvii.  34. 


200      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

church  in  Jerusalem,  in  spite  of  its  noble  desire 
to  have  all  things  in  common,  was  so  impoverished 
as  to  lose  the  capacity  for  self-support,  and  became 
dependent  on  alms  contributed  by  the  Gentile 
churches.  It  was  a  curious  nemesis  which  followed 
the  identification  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  with  a 
special  economic  condition.  James  might  continue 
to  fulminate  against  the  iniquities  of  the  rich,  but 
the  communities  to  which  he  wrote  sank  into  a 
progressive  pauperization  from  whose  results  they 
were  relieved  by  the  more  virile  and  thrifty  con- 
gregations bred  in  the  spirit  of  the  self-supporting 
Paul. 

Such,  it  may  not  unreasonably  be  believed,  were 
the  circumstances  in  which  two  different  ways  of 
regarding  wealth  and  poverty  came  to  exist  within 
the  literature  of  the  New  Testament.  In  the  Pales- 
tinian communities,  where  the  faithful  found  them- 
selves more  and  more  impoverished  and  defenceless, 
every  saying  of  Jesus  was  cherished  which  seemed 
to  comfort  the  poor  or  to  rebuke  the  prosper- 
ous; in  the  missionary  churches,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  distinctions  and  animosities  of  social 
classes  were  subordinated  to  the  larger  mission  to 
which  the  Christian  religion  was  called ;  and  when 
the  same  sayings  of  Jesus  were  repeated,  it  was  their 
spiritual  significance  which  was  recalled.  "  Blessed 
are  ye  poor,"  ^  says  the  church  in  Palestine,  for  the 
solace  of  its  oppressed  disciples ;  *'  Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit,"  ^  repeats  the  spiritual  tradition,  for 

1  Luke  vi.  20.  ^  Matt.  v.  3. 


THE   RICH  201 

the  humbling  of  unchristian  pride.  "  So  also  shall 
the  rich  man  fade  away  in  his  goings,"  says 
James.^  "  For  all  things  are  yours ;  .  .  .  and  ye 
are  Christ's,"  ^  answers  Paul. 

These  conjectures,  however,  carry  us  some- 
what beyond  our  present  purpose.  It  is  enough 
to  recognize,  running  through  the  New  Testament, 
two  radically  divergent  traditions  concerning  the 
relation  of  riches  to  the  Christian  life.  Accord- 
ing to  the  one  tradition  the  only  consistent  Chris- 
tian is  a  poor  man;  according  to  the  other  the 
true  riches  and  the  real  poverty  are  of  the  soul. 
If  then  we  are  to  inquire  which  of  these  two  tra- 
ditions represents  the  original  teaching  of  Jesus, 
it  is  impossible  to  rest  on  the  authority  of  any 
single  passage  in  the  gospels  or  even  on  the 
authority  of  any  single  gospel.  Behind  these 
partial  expressions  of  the  teaching,  one  must  ob- 
serve the  more  general  aspects  and  relations  of 
the  Master's  life.  What,  we  must  ask,  was  the 
habitual  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  the  rich  and  the 
poor  as  he  walked  and  talked  with  both  ?  With 
whom  did  he  most  naturally  live  ?  To  whom  did 
he  most  entirely  give  his  heart.?  Whom  did  he 
welcome  as  his  friends  and  followers.?  What  is 
the  relation  of  his  teaching  to  the  views  which 
prevailed  in  his  own  time  and  nation  concerning 
poverty  and  wealth  }  Summing  up  his  scattered 
instructions,  comparing  his  various  parables,  and 
observing   the  general  direction  of  his  mind  and 

1  James  i.  ii.  ^i  Cor.  iii.  21,  23. 


202      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  habitual  rule  of  his  life,  what  was  the  burden 
of  his  message  to  the  rich  ? 

In  order  to  reach  an  answer  to  these  questions 
it  is  necessary,  first,  to  recall  the  social  environ- 
ment of  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  the  world  of  people 
and  of  ideas  into  which  he  entered  and  through 
which  he  moved.  The  people  who  were  the  first 
to  welcome  him  were  certainly  not  of  the  rich  and 
ruling  classes,  but,  as  a  rule,  plain  and  unassum- 
ing folk.  This,  however,  is  by  no  means  equiva- 
lent to  saying  that  the  immediate  followers  of 
Jesus  were  drawn  exclusively  from  those  who 
in  the  modern  sense,  could  be  called  poor.  On 
the  contrary,  the  gospel  story,  with  all  its  tender 
feeling  for  the  poor,  moves  for  the  most  part 
through  a  social  environment  quite  above  the 
range  of  poverty.  Jesus  himself  was  born  in  a 
home  which  cannot  be  classified  either  as  rich  or 
poor.  He  was  educated,  both  in  letters  and  in 
handicraft.  When  he  entered  upon  his  public 
life,  there  is  no  sign  that  the  social  peril  of  wealth 
was  in  any  degree  burdening  his  heart.  When 
at  the  outset  of  his  ministry  he  was  tempted  of 
the  devil,  the  solicitations  which  were  presented  to 
him  were  not  those  of  riches,  but  those  of  fame, 
power,  and  self -display. 

When,  further,  we  consider  the  social  condition 
of  the  persons  first  won  by  his  teaching,  we  are  met 
by  many  different  social  types.^    Among  those  who 

1  Rogge,  p.  20  ff. ;  H.  Holtzmann,  "  Die  ersten  Christen  und  die 
soziale  Frage,"  s.  23  ;  New  Worlds  June,  1899,  p.  305. 


THE   RICH  203 

flocked  to  a  teacher  who  renewed  their  hope  and 
self-respect  were  indeed  many  penniless  and  bur- 
den-bearing outcasts ;  yet  within  the  circle  of  his 
intimacy  and  confidence  there  were  persons  of  all 
degrees  of  prosperity.  The  fishermen  who  were 
first  called  by  him  were  by  no  means  penniless 
or  homeless,  but  were  people  of  reasonable 
prosperity.  They  "left  their  father  .  .  .  with 
the  hired  servants,  and  went  after  him."^  One 
of  them  "  was  known  unto  the  high  priest,  and 
entered  in  with  Jesus  into  the  court  of  the  high 
priest."  2  At  the  death  of  their  Master  they 
returned  to  their  boats  and  trade.^  Peter  was  a 
householder,  to  whose  home  Jesus  came  when 
Peter's  wife's  mother  lay  sick.*  In  the  house 
of  Matthew  the  tax-gatherer,  Jesus  sat  at  meat ;  ^ 
"and  many  publicans  and  sinners  sat  down  with 
Jesus  and  his  disciples."^  Zacchaeus  was  a  chief 
publican,  "and  he  was  rich."  "The  half  of  my 
goods,"  he  said  to  Jesus,  "  I  give  to  the  poor ; " 
and  Jesus  commends  him  and  welcomes  him,  say- 
ing, "To-day  is  salvation  come  to  this  house."  ^ 
Nicodemus,  "a  ruler  of  the  Jews,"^  is  addressed 
by  Jesus  with  astonishing  candor ;  but  there  is 
no  rebuke  of  the  Pharisee's  prosperity.  The 
captain  of  the  guard,^  a  person  of  social  impor- 
tance and  authority,  is  not  censured  by  Jesus, 
but  honored  with   special  praise.      "Joanna  the 

*  Mark  i.  20.  *  Matt.  viii.  14.  "^  Luke  xix.  2,  8,  9. 

2  John  xviii.  15.       ^  Matt.  ix.  10.  8  John  iii.  i. 

«  John  xxi.  3  flF.        ♦»  Mark  ii.  15;  Matt.  ix.  10.     «  Matt.  viii.  10. 


204      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

wife  of  Chuza  Herod's  steward,  and  Susanna, 
and  many  others,"  being  —  it  must  be  in- 
ferred—  women  of  means,  "ministered  unto  them 
of  their  substance."^  The  home  at  Bethany, 
in  which  Jesus  repeatedly  found  tranquil  release 
from  the  pressure  of  his  public  life,  was  a  home 
of  comfort,  if  not  of  luxury,  and  there  was  in  it 
"anointment  of  spikenard,  very  precious." ^  pj. 
nally,  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  "  being  a  disciple  of 
Jesus,"  provides  a  tomb  for  the  crucified  Master, 
and  comes  with  Nicodemus,  "bringing  a  mixture 
of  myrrh  and  aloes,  about  a  hundred  pound 
weight."  8 

Here  are  sufficient  indications  that  [no  single 
social  type  monopolized  the  sympathy  (or  accept- 
ance of  Jesus.  Whatever  may  be  gladly  ad- 
mitted concerning  the  special  tenderness  of  his 
teaching  when  he  speaks  of  the  poor,  and  how- 
ever true  it  is  that  "the  common  people  heard 
him  gladly,"  *  there  is  certainly  no  ground  for 
believing  that  Jesus  proposed  to  array  the  poor 
against  the  rich  or  to  set  the  one  social  class 
on  his  right  hand  and  the  other  on  his  left. 
The  fact  is  that  his  teaching  moved  in  a  world  of 
thought  and  desire  where  such  distinctions  be- 
came unimportant,  and  a  profounder  principle  of 
classification  was  applied.  He  gathered  about 
himself  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  and 
women ;  he  passed  without  any  sign  of  conscious 

*  Luke  viii.  3.  •  John  xix.  38,  39. 

*  John  xii.  3.  *  Mark  xii.  37. 


THE    RICH  205 

transition  from  the  company  of  the  rich  to  that 
of  the  poor  and  back  to  that  of  the  rich  again. 
He  was  equally  at  home  at  the  table  of  the  pros- 
perous Zacchaeus,  in  the  quiet  home  at  Bethany, 
and  in  the  company  of  the  blind  beggar  by  the 
wayside.^  He  lavished  his  great  utterances  with 
equal  freedom  on  the  scholarly  Nicodemus^  and 
on  the  ignorant  and  foolish  woman  by  the  well.^ 
In  short,  his  categories  of  social  judgment  are 
not  those  of  wealth  and  poverty.  His  thought  is 
directed  toward  the  fulfilment  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Whatever  type  of  character  he  discovers 
which  seems  contributory  to  that  ideal  he  spon- 
taneously and  often  abruptly  accepts,  and  what- 
ever circumstances,  on  the  other  hand,  appear 
to  hinder  that  great  consummation  must  be, 
according  to  his  teaching,  at  any  sacrifice  escaped 
or  overcome.  Here  must  have  been  one  source 
of  joy  in  listening  to  Jesus.  Men  found  them- 
selves no  longer  identified  with  a  single  social 
class,  having  special  limitations  of  teachableness 
or  capacity ;  they  were  brought  into  sight  of  the 
comprehensive  unity  of  human  ideals  and  needs, 
in  which  the  distinctions  of  social  groups  were 
lost  in  a  larger  companionship.  It  was  the  joy  of 
the  narrow  stream  when  it  flows  out  at  last  into 
the  comprehensive  ocean  and  meets  the  infinite 
variety  of  other  streams  from  which  its  own 
course  has  been  hitherto  shut  away. 

This  elevation  of  the  mind  of  Jesus  above  the 

1  Mark  x.  46.  2  jQhn  {[i  i_2i.  *  John  iv.  7-26. 


206      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

region  of  social  differences  .  is  further  indicated 
when  one  considers  his  relation  to  that  view  of 
poverty  and  wealth  which  was  current  among  his 
own  people  and  in  his  own  time.  There  still  sur- 
vived about  him  a  national  tradition  that  piety 
should  bring  with  it  prosperity ;  yet,  in  spite  of 
their  piety,  his  people  were  plundered  and  op- 
pressed by  the  unsanctified  Romans,  and  the 
prophecy  of  an  external  reward  for  righteousness 
seemed  far  from  fulfilled.  Here  was  a  social 
condition  contrary  both  to  their  religious  hope 
and  to  their  national  instinct  of  money-getting, 
and  the  Hebrew  people  were  filled  with  bitter- 
ness and  wrath  toward  those  who  were,  at  the  same 
time,  unholy  and  prosperous.  "To  pass  through 
their  literature,"  it  has  been  justly  said,  '*is  like 
passing  through  Dante's  Inferno,  except  that 
nowhere  appears  any  trace  of  that  Divine  pity 
which  the  great  Italian  permits."^  There  came  to 
exist  among  them  what  has  been  called  a  "  genius 
for  hatred"  of  the  rich.  "Woe  unto  you,"  says 
the  book  of  Enoch,  "  who  heap  up  silver  and  gold 
and  say.  We  are  growing  rich  and  possess  all  we 
desire."  "  Your  riches  shall  not  remain  for  you, 
but  shall  suddenly  disappear ;  because  you  have 
gained  all  unjustly,  and  you  yourselves  shall  re- 
ceive greater  damnation."  ^ 

Into    this    social    environment    of    embittered 
poverty   and    cultivated    hate,    with    no    solution 

1  Rogge  (op.  cit.),  s.  34,  with  many  illustrative  citations. 

2  Enoch  xcvii.  8  ff. 


THE   RICH  207 

at  its  command  for  the  paradox  of  poverty  and 
piety,  enters  the  new  comprehensiveness  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  Prosperity,  he  preaches,  is 
no  sign  of  Divine  acceptance ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  one  of  the  most  threatening  obstructions  of  the 
spiritual  life.  The  desire  of  the  nation,  therefore, 
should  be  turned  altogether  away  from  the  thought 
of  wealth  as  a  sign  of  piety,  or  of  poverty  as  a  sign 
of  Divine  disfavor.  Let  the  poor  take  heart  again. 
They  have  no  reason  to  envy  or  to  hate  the  rich. 
Let  them  rather  realize  how  hard  it  is  for  a  rich 
man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom.  There  is  but  one 
supreme  end  for  the  life  of  rich  and  poor  alike,  — 
the  service  of  the  kingdom ;  and  there  is  but  one 
fundamental  decision  for  all  to  make, — the  deci- 
sion whether  they  will  serve  God  or  Mammon. 
In  short,  in  striking  contrast  with  the  tradition 
and  literature  of  hate  with  which  he  was  un- 
doubtedly familiar,  Jesus  surveys  the  relation  of 
the  rich  and  the  poor  from  above,  in  the  light 
of  his  ideal  of  the  kingdom ;  and  a  new  sense  of 
hope  and  self-respect  springs  up  in  many  a  per- 
plexed and  questioning  mind  as  Jesus  summons 
it  to  a  way  of  life  of  which  neither  wealth  nor 
poverty  is  the  key,  and  of  which,  on  the  other 
hand,  neither  wealth  nor  poverty  is  an  absolute 
obstacle.  "  Lay  not  up,"  he  says,  "  for  yourselves 
treasures  upon  the  earth,  ...  for  where  thy  treas- 
ure is,  there  will  thy  heart  be  also.''^ 

Thus  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is,  in  gne  sense,  extra- 
^  Matt  vi.  19, 21. 


208      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

ordinarily  detached  from  the  problem  of  social 
distinctions  and  commercial  prosperity.  Jesus  is 
not  a  social  demagogue  ;  he  is  a  spiritual  seer. 
He  is  not  concerned  with  the  levelling  of  social 
classes,  but  with  the  elevating  of  social  ideals. 
He  welcomes  a  life  for  its  own  sake,  not  -for  its 
circumstances  of  wealth  or  of  poverty.  Does 
this  characteristic  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  how- 
ever, render  his  message  to  the  rich  as  a  special 
class  any  less  distinct  or  solemn  or  profound  ? 
On  the  contrary,  out  of  his  fragmentary  utter- 
ances and  occasional  parables  there  issues  a  teach- 
ing quite  as  radical  in  its  character  and  quite  as 
searching  in  its  demands  as  any  modern  arraign- 
ment of  wealth,  but  with  a  touch  of  wisdom  and 
a  balance  of  judgment  which  make  it  a  teaching, 
not  for  a  special  age  or  class,  but  for  all  condi- 
tions and  all  times. 

The  scattered  utterances  of  Jesus  about  the 
problem  of  wealth  fall  into  two  distinct  classes. 
On  the  one  hand  is  the  series  of  sayings  which 
deal  with  the  faithful  use  of  one's  possessions ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the  passages  which 
plainly  demand  the  abandonment  of  such  posses- 
sions. In  the  parables,  for  instance,  of  the  talents  ^ 
and  of  the  pounds,^  as  in  the  stories  of  the  unjust 
steward  ^  and  of  the  foolish  rich  man,*  there  seems 
to  be  indicated,  not  the  intrinsic  evil  of  wealth, 
but  the  duty  of  fidelity,  watchfulness,  and  fore- 

1  Matt.  XXV.  14-30.  •  Luke  xvi.  1-13. 

*  Luke  xix.  13-27.  *  Luke  xu.  16-21. 


THE   RICH  209 

sight  in  administering  wealth.  "  Watch  therefore, 
for  ye  know  not  the  day  nor  the  hour."^  "This 
night  is  thy  soul  required  of  thee."^  "Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant."  ^  "  If  therefore  ye 
have  not  been  faithful  in  the  unrighteous  mam- 
mon, who  will  commit  to  your  trust  the  true 
riches  ?  "  *  In  such  passages  money  appears  to  be 
regarded  as  a  test.  Faithfulness  in  the  few  things 
prepares  for  mastery  over  the  many  things.  The 
mammon  of  unrighteousness  may  make  friends 
who  will  receive  one  into  the  everlasting  taber- 
nacles. The  same  teaching  is  conveyed  in  that 
doctrine  of  cumulative  returns  which  appears  in 
the  parable  of  the  talents.^  Jesus  is  here  as  far 
as  possible  from  the  position  of  a  social  leveller. 
He  discerns  with  extraordinary  clearness  the  inevi- 
tably cumulative  results  of  the  wise  use  of  pos- 
sessions, and  announces  a  law  of  distribution, 
which  is  not  only  fundamentally  opposed  to  the 
programme  of  the  modern  revolutionist,  but  is  also 
far  more  in  accord  with  the  method  of  nature. 
"For  unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be  given, 
.  .  .  but  from  him  that  hath  not,  even  that  which 
he  hath  shall  be  taken  away."^ 

On  the  other  hand,  there  remains  a  class  of 
passages  which  no  softened  interpretation  can 
render  as  teaching  anything  less  than  the  abne- 
gation of  possessions.  "Whosoever  he  be  of  you 
that  renounceth  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot 

1  Matt.  XXV.  13.  »  Matt.  xxv.  21.  *  Matt.  xxv.  14-30. 

•  Luke  xii.  20.  *  Luke  xvi.  1 1.  •  Matt.  xxv.  29. 

P 


210      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

be  my  disciple." ^  "Sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and 
distribute  unto  the  poor,  .  .  .  and  come,  follow 
me;  "2  and  "they  left  all,  and  followed  him."* 
"  Thou  in  thy  lifetime  receivedst  thy  good  things, 
and  Lazarus  in  like  manner  evil  things :  but  now 
here  he  is  comforted,  and  thou  art  in  anguish."* 
Concerning  some  passages  of  this  nature,  it  may  be 
with  justice  urged  that  these  absolute  commands 
seem  to  have  been  laid,  not  on  all  men,  but  on  that 
immediate  group  of  disciples  who  were  bidden  in 
a  peculiar  degree  to  share  their  Master's  wander- 
ing life,  and  to  detach  themselves  from  the  ties  of 
business  and  home.  Further,  in  the  case  of  Dives 
and  Lazarus,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  infer  that 
there  must  have  been  more  involved  in  the  original 
contrast  of  their  destinies  than  a  mere  distinction 
of  prosperity  and  pauperism.^  Even  if  Dives  be 
condemned  to  anguish  simply  because  he  is  rich, 
it  is  not  easy  to  believe  that  Lazarus  should  be 
taken  to  heaven  for  no  other  reason  than  because 
he  was  poor.  Yet,  after  all  possible  mitigation 
has  been  thus  proposed  for  the  severity  of  such 
sayings,  there  remains  in  many  of  them  an  unmis- 
takable note  of  renunciation. 

The  most  conspicuous  instance  of  this  motif  of 
renunciation  is  in  the  touching  interview  of  Jesus 
with  the  rich  young  ruler ;  ^  an  incident  recorded 
at  length  in  all  the  first  three  gospels,  as  though 

^  Luke  xiv.  33.  ^  Luke  xviii.  22.  '  Luke  v.  1 1. 

*  Luke  xvi.  25.  ^  Rogge,  s.  66. 

«  Matt.  xix.  16-22  J  Mark  x.  17-23  ;  Luke  xviii.  18  flf. 


THE   RICH  211 

specially  treasured  among  the  early  tradition  of 
the  Master's  words.  This  young  man  is  both 
impulsive  and  reverent.  First  he  runs  to  Jesus, 
and  then  he  kneels  before  him,  and  Jesus,  looking 
on  him,  loves  him.^  It  is  a  beautiful  meeting  of 
fair,  frank  youth  with  a  wise,  calm  teacher;  an 
offering  of  spontaneous  loyalty  on  the  one  hand 
and  an  immediate  impulse  of  affection  on  the 
other.  Yet  the  charm  of  the  youth  does  not 
soften  in  any  degree  the  judgment  of  the  Teacher. 
On  the  contrary,  precisely  because  he  loves  him 
Jesus  demands  of  him  a  great  renunciation.  One 
thing  stands  between  that  winsome  youth  and  his 
service  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  his  wealth.  What 
can  one  who  loves  him  propose  but  a  heroic  rem- 
edy ?  It  is  a  case  where  alleviating  treatment 
must  fail,  and  where  the  wise  physician  must  with 
apparent  cruelty  counsel  a  capital  operation.  It  is 
a  situation  familiar  in  modern  life.  A  young  man, 
well  born  and  well  bred,  winsome  and  gallant,  is 
withheld  from  the  effective  use  of  his  life  by  the 
weight  of  his  possessions.  If  he  could  only  forget 
that  he  was  rich  and  give  himself  to  strenuous 
work,  he  might  do  gallant  service.  If  some  dra- 
matic summons  like  that  of  an  actual  war  is  heard 
by  him,  the  follies  of  his  luxury  and  self-indulgence 
drop  away  from  him,  and  he  becomes  the  most 
enduring  and  daring  of  soldiers.  Meantime,  how- 
ever, here  he  is,  with  hardly  a  fair  chance  for  a 
useful  life,  turning  play  into  work,  and  sinking  into 

1  Mark  x.  2i. 


212      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

a  false  and  foolish  estimate  of  life  and  happiness. 
What  hope  is  there  for  such  a  young  man  except 
through  some  radical  change,  curative  though 
cruel,  like  the  surgeon's  knife  ?  It  was  thus  that 
Jesus,  loving  the  young  ruler,  demanded  much  of 
him ;  and  one  can  imagine  the  loving  pity  with 
which  Jesus,  when  the  young  man  shrank  from  the 
only  operation  which  could  save  him,  "looked 
round  about,  and  saith  unto  his  disciples.  How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  ! "  ^ 

Here,  then,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  are  two 
views  of  wealth  which  are  apparently  in  conflict, 
—  the  thought  of  wealth  as  a  trust  to  be  used 
and  the  thought  of  wealth  as  a  peril  to  be  escaped; 
the  physician's  prescription  for  social  health,  and 
the  surgeon's  remedy  from  social  death.  Does 
this  variation  indicate  any  inconsistency  or  ambi- 
guity in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  ?  On  the  contrary, 
the  very  essence  of  his  message  to  the  rich  is  to 
be  found  in  its  twofold  quality.  It  is  not  impossible 
for  Jesus  to  unite  severity  with  love.  He  per- 
ceives with  perfect  distinctness  that  the  most 
immediate  and  insidious  peril  to  the  Christian  life 
is  to  come  from  the  love  of  money.  Vulgarity, 
ostentation,  envy,  ambition,  self-conceit,  mate- 
rial standards  of  happiness  —  the  qualities  which 
make  people  unspiritual,  unteachable,  unresponsive 
to  the  light  —  are  the  attendants  of  the  god  Mam- 
mon.    The    issue   is  therefore    undisguised.     No 

1  Mark  x.  23. 


THE   RICH  213 

man  can  serve  two  masters ;  no  man  can  have  two 
Gods.  The  service  of  the  kingdom  demands  the 
whole  of  a  man,  his  possessions  as  well  as  his 
mind  and  heart.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  permits 
in  no  case  the  sense  of  absolute  ownership.  No 
man  can  say,  **Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do 
what  I  will  with  mine  own  .? "  ^  A  man  does  not 
own  his  wealth,  he  owes  it.  Precisely  as  a  busi- 
ness man  says  to  himself,  I  must  invest  and 
distribute  a  certain  sum  with  special  scrupulous- 
ness because  I  administer  it  as  a  trustee,  under  a 
law  which  demands  of  me  a  special  reckoning,  so 
the  disciple  of  Jesus  acts  in  all  concerns  of  his  life 
as  a  servant  who  has  heard  the  great  word,  "  Be 
ye  also  ready  :  for  in  an  hour  that  ye  think  not  the 
Son  of  man  cometh."^ 

If,  then,  such  a  listener  to  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  has  to  confess  to  himself  that  he  is  in  any 
degree  owned  by  his  money,  if  the  thought  of 
trusteeship  tends  to  fade  and  the  thought  of  a 
right  to  his  possessions  has  crept  in,  if  he  is  ex- 
cusing the  unrighteous  gain  of  money  by  the 
benevolent  use  of  money,  or  if  he  has  come  to  a 
tacit  contract  with  his  soul  that  his  superfluous 
means  shall  be  the  Lord's,  and  that  with  the  rest 
he  may  say,  **  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up 
for  many  years  ;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  be 
merry,"  3  —  then,  according  to  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  the  absolute  and  immediate  renunciation  of 
wealth  is  better  than  any  self-deception.     **It   is 

*  Matt.  XX.  15.  2  Luke  xii.  40.  *  Luke  xii.  19. 


214      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

profitable  for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should 
perish,  and  not  thy  whole  body  go  into  hell."  ^  "  For 
what  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  gain  the  whole  world, 
and  lose  or  forfeit  his  own  self  ?"2  in  short,  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus  is  one  of  solemn  alternatives,  in  the 
presence  of  which  each  man  must  test  the  secrets 
of  his  heart.  Is  he  able  to  look  up  into  his  Lord's 
face  at  some  sudden  coming  and  say,  "  Thou  deliver- 
edst  unto  me  five  talents :  lo,  I  have  gained  other 
five"?2  Then  his  wealth  has  been  his  friend  to  lead 
him  into  the  eternal  tabernacles ;  and  the  Owner 
of  his  wealth  welcomes  him  with  the  word,  "  Enter 
thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."*  Or  must  there 
be,  on  the  other  hand,  a  hiding  from  so  search- 
ing a  judgment,  as  of  one  who  has  worshipped 
another  god  and  has  left  his  trust  uninvested 
and  unfruitful }  Then  the  quicker  and  the  more 
rudely  the  altar  of  Mammon  is  overthrown,  the 
safer  is  that  man  from  the  overwhelming  rebuke, 
"  Cast  ye  out  the  unprofitable  servant  into  the  outer 
darkness  :  there  shall  be  the  weeping  and  gnash- 
ing of  teeth." 5 

Let  no  one  fancy,  then,  that  in  translating  this 
twofold  teaching  of  Jesus  into  the  language  of  the 
modern  world  he  can  make  of  it  a  more  moderate 
or  more  tolerant  message  to  the  rich  than  the 
coarser  utterances  and  more  radical  programmes 
of  modern  agitation.  Jesus  does  not  sentimen- 
talize about  the  duties  of  wealth  ;   he  sets  forth 

1  Matt.  V.  30.  2  Luke  ix.  25.  '  Matt.  xxv.  20. 

*  Matt.  xxv.  21.  ®  Matt.  xxv.  30. 


THE  RICH  215 

with  tranquil  severity  the  alternatives  which  lie! 
before  the  rich.  If  in  any  case  riches  obstruct 
the  complete  dedication  of  the  life,  then  Jesus  has  ^ 
no  objection  to  offer  to  the  most  sweeping  of* 
modern  demands  for  the  abolition  of  rich  men. 
Indeed,  he  goes  beyond  most  of  these  demands. 
The  modern  attack  on  wealth  would  content  itself 
if  the  share  of  profit  which  falls  to  the  capitalist 
class  could  be  greatly  reduced.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus,  however,  is  not  a  doctrine  of  economic 
justice  and  equitable  distribution ;  he  does  not  ask 
of  a  man  a  fair  proportion  of  his  personal  profits  ; 
he  asks  the  whole  of  one's  gains  —  and  the  life 
which  lies  behind  the  gains — for  the  service  of 
the  kingdom ;  and  the  problem  of  economic  dis- 
tribution expands  in  his  teaching  into  the  greater 
problem  of  spiritual  regeneration  and  preparedness.^ 
Such  is  the  message  of  Jesus  to  the  rich.  He 
does  not  present  a  scheme  of  economic  rearrange- 
ment ;  he  issues  a  summons  to  the  kingdom.  He 
confronts  a  man,  not  with  the  problem  of  his  com- 
mercial rights,  but  with  the  problem  of  his  own 
soul.  To  many  a  man,  ensnared  in  the  complex 
and  intense  conditions  of  modern  life,  to  many  a 
man  and  woman  tempted  almost  beyond  their 
strength  by  self-indulgence,  narrow  interests,  and 
practical  materialism,  the  message  of  Jesus  comes 

1  See  the  passage  in  Paulsen,  "  Ethik,"  s.  69,  "  Wealth  is  of  no 
worth  to  the  Christian.  .  .  .  But  wealth  is  not  only  without  worth ; 
it  is  a  peril.  Property  is  in  itself  not  a  sin,  but  to  the  property-holder 
it  is  an  immense  peril." 


^ 


2l6      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

with  convincing  force.  Such  persons  know  well 
that  it  is  hard  for  those  who  have  riches  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom.  They  know  how  difficult  it  is 
to  maintain  religious  ideals,  genuine  simplicity,  and 
breadth  of  sympathy  among  the  exotic  and  artifi- 
cial circumstances  of  a  prosperous  life.  They  see 
how  frequently  the  possession  of  riches  becomes  a 
curse,  and  how  often  the  children  for  whom  the 
father  has  labored  are  but  the  worse  for  the 
abundance  which  he  has  secured,  as  though  they 
had  asked  him  for  bread  and  he  had  given  them 
a  stone.  They  have  to  confess  that  it  is  easier  for 
the  poor  than  for  the  rich  to  be  poor  in  spirit.  Such 
persons,  however,  when  they  look  oixce  more  at  the 
world  of  modern  life,  observe  that  the  stern  demand 
of  Jesus  is  sometimes  met ;  that — here  and  there — 
riches  are  deliberately  and  consistently  held  as  a 
trust  from  God,  and  the  way  of  service  is  made  broad 
and  straight  through  the  ministry  of  wealth  ;  and 
they  recognize  the  wisdom  of  Jesus,  when,  having 
said  so  unreservedly,  **  How  hardly  shall  they  that 
have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  ! "  ^  he 
is  still  able  to  say  of  the  man  who  had  faithfully 
used  his  many  talents,  **  Blessed  is  that  servant, 
...  Of  a  truth  I  say  unto  you,  that  he  will  set 
him  over  all  that  he  hath."  ^ 

If,  then,  on  such  terms  there  is  a  place  in  the 
kingdom  for  the  rich,  one  is  led  to  ask,  finally,  how 
v\^ealth,  thus  regarded  as  a  trust,  may  be  legitimately 
used.     Does  the  teaching  of  Jesus  give  any  indica- 

1  Luke  xviii.  24.  ^  Luke  xii.  43,  44. 


THE    RICH  217 

tion  of  those  employments  of  money  which  make 
for  the  purposes  of  the  kingdom  ? 

There  seem  to  be  at  least  three  ways  in  which 
Jesus  welcomes  the  ministry  of  wealth  as  a  part  of 
Christian  service.  First,  there  is  the  use  of  wealth ' 
in  almsgiving.  "  Distribute  unto  the  poor,  and  thou 
shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven."  ^  It  is  important, 
however,  to  note  that  almsgiving,  though  assumed 
by  Jesus  to  be  a  habit  of  his  followers,  does  not 
receive  from  him  a  high  place  among  Christian  vir- 
tues. Jesus  takes  for  granted  that  the  consecration 
of  life  will  lead  to  the  distribution  of  possessions; 
but  he  gives  his  chief  attention,  not  to  the  stimu- 
lating of  almsgiving,  but  to  the  correcting  of  its 
mistakes  and  of  the  false  estimate  of  value  often 
attached  to  it.  Almsgiving  must  be  free  from  os- 
tentation. *'  But  when  thou  doest  alms,  let  not  thy 
left  hand  know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth."^  Ac- 
ceptable almsgiving  must  be  measured,  not  by  the 
amount  of  the  gift,  but  by  the  cost  of  the  gift  to  the 
giver.  "Verily  I  say  unto  you.  This  poor  widow  cast 
in  more  than  all  they  which  are  casting  into  the 
treasury. ' '  ^  Jesus  himself,  so  far  as  the  record  shows, 
gave  no  alms,  unless  it  can  be  accounted  almsgiv- 
ing to  feed  the  multitude  that  they  might  be  atten- 
tive to  his  spiritual  message.  In  the  wonderful 
picture  of  the  Judgment,  *  the  commendation  of  the 
righteous  is  not  bestowed  because  they  distributed 
of  their  abundance  to  the  poor,  but  because  they 

'  Luke  xviii.  22.  *  Mark  xii.  43. 

a  Matt,  vi.  3.  *  Matt.  xxv.  35  flF. 


2l8      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

gave  of  their  personal  service  to  the  stranger,  the 
prisoner,  and  the  sick.  While,  therefore,  it  is  true 
that  almsgiving  is  accepted  by  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
as  a  self-evident  characteristic  of  his  service,  it  has 
in  itself  nothing  of  that  primacy  among  the  virtues 
which  through  a  great  part  of  Christian  history 
has  been  attributed  to  it,  and  which  has  made 
it  often  a  sufficient  cover  for  a  multitude  of 
sins. 

Very  different  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  con- 
cerning expenditure  in  almsgiving  are  his  allusions 
to  a  second  use  of  money,  —  its  ministry  to  hap- 
piness and  to  beauty.  It  is  only  here  and  there 
in  the  gospels  that  the  sense  of  the  beautiful 
finds  expression  in  the  sombre  and  strenuous  life 
of  Jesus,  as  slanting  sunbeams  strike  through  a 
clouded  and  threatening  day ;  but  when  these 
rare  flashes  of  aesthetic  pleasure  slant  thus  through 
his  teaching  they  illuminate  a  side  of  his  charac- 
ter which  has  been  from  many  devout  Christians 
almost  concealed.  Jesus  looks  about  him,  at  the 
birds  of  the  air  and  the  lilies  of  the  field,  and  the 
sheer  prodigality  and  loveliness  of  their  lives  make 
them  fit  illustrations  of  the  method  of  God.  Jesus 
sits  among  the  happy  guests  at  a  wedding  feast  and 
enters  joyously  into  the  festive  spirit  of  that  scene. 
He  is  called  a  winebibber  and  publican  because  he 
does  not  sternly  shun  occasions  of  genial  hospi- 
tality and  happy  companionship.  More  impres- 
sively still  his  appreciation  of  non-utilitarian 
expenditure  is  exhibited  in  the  story  of  the  woman 


THE  RICH  219 

with  the  box  of  ointment,  —  a  story  which  fastened 
upon  the  minds  of  those  who  heard  it  so  strongly 
that  it  appears  in  various  connections  in  all  four 
gospels.^  The  incident  presented  a  clear  issue 
between  the  use  of  money  for  imaginative  symbol- 
ism and  the  use  of  money  for  almsgiving.  The 
disciples  "  had  indignation,  saying.  To  what  pur- 
pose is  this  waste  ?  For  this  ointment  might  have 
been  sold  for  much,  and  given  to  the  poor."'* 
Jesus,  however,  perceives  that  there  are  other  needs 
of  human  life  to  be  considered  besides  mere  main- 
tenance of  life.  "Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone."  ^  As  the  woman  pours  out  her  prodigal 
offering  it  is  as  if  in  answer  to  the  deep  human 
demand  for  the  beautiful,  the  suggestive,  the  sac- 
rificial ;  and  Jesus  greets  her  gift  as  he  greeted 
the  beauty  of  the  lilies,  with  their  suggestion  of 
that  Divine  completeness  which  he  desired  to  reveal. 
"Verily  I  say  unto  you.  Wheresoever  this  gospel 
shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world,  that  also  which 
this  woman  hath  done  shall  be  spoken  of  for  a 
memorial  of  her."*  Here  is  the  charter  of  all 
undertakings  which  propose  in  the  name  of  Christ 
to  feed  the  mind,  to  stir  the  imagination,  to  quicken 
the  emotions,  to  make  life  less  meagre,  less  animal, 
less  dull.  "  The  limit  of  luxury,"  a  modern  worker 
among  the  poor  has  remarked,  "is  the  power  of 

1  Matt.  xxvi.  7 ;  Mark  xiv.  3 ;  Luke  vii.  37 ;  John  xii.  3. 
Compare  Stopford  Brooke,  "Christ  in  Modern  Life,"  Sermon 
XVIII,  "  Art  Expenditure." 

2  Matt.  xxvi.  8,  9.  *  Luke  iv.  4.  *  Matt.  xxvi.  13. 


220      JESUS   CHfilST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

sharing."  ^  Expenditure  of  wealth  on  art,  on  edu- 
cation, on  music,  on  the  opening  of  the  resources 
of  nature  to  the  weary  life  of  cities,  on  the  eman- 
cipation of  mankind  from  commercial  standards, 
on  the  provision  of  humanizing  and  symbolic  ways 
of  pleasure,  —  is  not  only  justified  through  its  ele- 
vating and  educative  effect,  but  it  rests  also  on 
the  explicit  authority  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  not  always  better  to  spend  for  such 
ends  than  to  give  to  the  poor,  but  it  is  equally 
legitimate.  The  Christian  life  would  be  meagre 
indeed  if  it  could  offer  no  welcome  to  the  unre- 
flecting and  spontaneous  sacrifice  of  the  heart. 

Both  of  these  services  of  money,  however,  —  its 
benevolent  and  its  aesthetic  use,  —  recognized  as 
they  are  by  Jesus,  are  subordinated  in  his  teaching 
to  a  third  use  which  receives  from  him  repeated 
commendation.  One  is  almost  startled  to  discover 
that  this  most  Christian  employment  of  posses- 
sions is  simply  their  scrupulous  and  honorable  use 
in  that  special  work  which  one  is  called  upon  to  do. 
The  Christian  world  has  become  familiar  with  a 
double  standard  of  ethics.  It  has  refrained  from 
scrutinizing  closely  the  methods  by  which  men 
get  their  money,  and  has  reserved  its  judgment 
for  the  methods  by  which  they  spend  their  money. 
A  man  in  the  world  of  affairs  may  engage  in 
questionable  occupations  or  undertakings  if  he 
redeems  himself  by  the  consecration  of  his  spoils. 
The  world's  work,  it  is  often   felt,  demands   one 

1  Barnett,  "  The  Service  of  God,"  p.  99. 


THE   RICH  221 

standard  of  business,  and  what  is  described  as 
**  Christian  work "  demands  another  standard. 
The  service  of  Mammon  brings  such  large  re- 
turns that  it  may  come  to  seem  contributory  to 
the  service  of  God.  Probably  nothing  so  degrades 
the  Christian  religion  in  the  view  of  men  of  the 
world  as  the  conformity  of  Christian  churches  or 
Christian  believers  to  this  doctrine  of  ethical  bi- 
metallism. To  see  a  man  of  the  double  standard 
accepted  among  the  saints  and  a  distinction  per- 
mitted between  the  principles  of  the  business 
world  and  of  the  Christian  Church,  is  enough  to 
drive  from  the  influence  of  religion  many  a  man 
who  has  no  rule  of  life  but  to  be  consistent  and 
incorruptible  in  his  daily  work.  He  cannot  believe 
that  a  debased  coinage  is  valid  for  religious  use. 

With  this  judgment  of  men  of  affairs  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  precisely  coincides.  Jesus  has  noth- 
ing but  condemnation  for  the  divided  life.  The 
fundamental  principle  of  his  teaching  about  wealth 
is  the  principle  that  there  cannot  be  two  masters 
or  two  gods.  His  severest  sayings  are  directed 
against  the  hypocrites,  who  in  their  business  "  de- 
vour widows'  houses,"  and  in  the  synagogues 
"make  long  prayers."^  Consistency  is,  to  Jesus, 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  life.  His  judg- 
ment, therefore,  is  not  primarily  pronounced  on 
a  man  as  he  is  praying  or  giving  alms  or  per- 
forming what  are  technically  called  religious  du- 
ties, but  as  the  man  is  engaged  in  his  common, 
1  Mark  xii.  40. 


222      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

unsanctified,  daily  business.  The  pictures  of  the 
religious  life  which  the  gospels  most  frequently 
present  are  drawn  from  scenes  of  the  commercial 
world.  A  man,  going  into  another  country,  calls 
his  servants  and  delivers  unto  them  his  goods.^ 
A  nobleman  calls  his  ten  servants  and  gives  them 
ten  pounds,  saying,  "Trade  ye  herewith  till  I 
come."  2  A  man  leaves  his  home  and  gives  "au- 
thority to  his  servants,  to  each  one  his  work," 
commanding  also  "the  porter  to  watch."^  A  man 
plants  a  vineyard  and  lets  it  out  to  husbandmen, 
"  that  he  might  receive  from  the  husbandmen  of 
the  fruits  of  the  vineyard."*  Who  are  these  ser- 
vants, these  traders,  these  porters,  these  vine- 
dressers }  They  represent  the  persons  whom 
Jesus  desires  for  his  disciples ;  and  they  are  per- 
forming precisely  that  kind  of  service  which  he 
wishes  his  disciples  to  render.  Who,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  the  persons  who  receive  from  him  his 
most  solemn  warnings  or  most  terrific  condemna- 
tion.^ They  are  the  servants  who  neglect  their 
trust ;  ^  the  porter  who  sleeps  at  his  post,  ^  the 
husbandmen  who  fancy  there  is  to  be  no  reck- 
oning, ^  the  trader  who  deals  with  his  Lord's 
money  less  scrupulously  than  he  would  with  his 
own.^  "  Out  of  thine  own  mouth  will  I  judge  thee, 
thou  wicked  servant."^  "What  therefore  will 
the  lord  of  the  vineyard  do  ^  he  will   come  and 

^  Matt.  XXV.  14.         *  Mark  xii.  2.  '  Mark  xii.  i-ii. 

^  Luke  xix.  13.  *  Matt.  xxv.  24-30.       *  Luke  xix.  20-24. 

■  Mark  xiii.  34.         *  Mark  xiii.  34.  *  Luke  xix.  22, 


THE  RICH  223 

destroy  the  husbandmen,  and  will  give  the  vine- 
yard unto  others."  ^  More  characteristic,  that  is 
to  say,  of  the  Christian  life  than  the  most  gener- 
ous almsgiving  or  the  most  suggestive  aestheticism 
is  the  manifestation  of  consistent  fidelity  in  the 
conduct  of  one's  own  affairs.  The  first  searching* 
of  a  man's  heart  should  not  concern  the  Chris-j 
tian  distribution  of  his  gains,  but  the  Christian! 
getting  of  his  gains.  The  highest  commendation 
of  Jesus  is  given,  not  to  the  munificent  alms- 
giver,  but  to  the  faithful  steward,  the  watchful 
porter,  the  scrupulous  servant.  It  was  once  said 
of  the  Messiah  that  "his  voice  should  not  be 
heard  in  the  street " ;  but,  if  we  may  translate 
those  words  into  the  language  of  modern  business, 
it  is  precisely  "  in  the  street "  that  the  message  of 
Jesus  to  the  rich  is  delivered ;  and  no  self-decep- 
tion of  the  prosperous  can  be  greater  than  the 
belief  that  this  judgment  of  Jesus  on  the  con- 
duct of  one's  daily  business  can  be  mitigated  or 
transferred. 

Who,  then,  is  the  Christian  rich  man  ?  It  is  he 
who  recognizes  that  in  the  management  of  his 
wealth  he  is  in  the  presence  of  a  constant  and 
subtle  temptation ;  that,  as  Jesus  said,  there  is  in 
the  nature  of  increasing  wealth  a  peculiar  quality 
of  "deceitfulness,"  so  that  the  money  which  is  at 
first  one's  servant  is  at  any  moment  likely  to 
become  one's  master.  The  Christian  rich  man 
knows  well  that  it  is  hard  for  him  to  enter  the 

^  Mark  xii.  9. 


224      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

kingdom  of  God.  He  observes  the  characters  of 
many  men  shrivel  in  the  flame  of  prosperity.  He 
sees  that  conditions  of  luxury,  ease,  and  lack  of 
the  friction  of  life  contribute  to  a  slackening  of 
moral  fibre.  He  holds  before  himself,  therefore, 
the  solemn  alternatives  of  Jesus, — the  mastery 
of  wealth,  or  the  abandonment  of  it.  Thus  the 
wealth  of  the  Christian  rich  man  becomes  to  him 
a  trust,  for  the  use  of  which  he  is  to  be  scrupu- 
lously judged.  He  administers  his  affairs  with 
watchfulness  over  himself  and  with  hands  clean 
of  malice,  oppression,  or  deceit.  He  does  not  hope 
to  atone  for  evil  ways  of  making  money  by  osten- 
tatious benevolence  in  spending  it.  He  is  to  be 
judged  according  to  his  ways  of  accumulating 
wealth  as  rigidly  as  for  his  ways  of  distributing 
wealth.  He  is  not  hard  in  business  and  soft  in 
charity,  but  of  one  fibre  throughout.  His  busi- 
ness is  a  part  of  his  religion,  and  his  philanthropy 
is  a  part  of  his  business.  He  leads  his  life,  he  is 
not  led  by  it.  His  five  talents  produce  other  five. 
And  who  is  the  Christian  rich  woman  ?  It  is  she 
who  finds  it  not  impossible  to  be  rich  in  purse  and 
poor  in  spirit.  She  accepts  her  opportunity  watch- 
fully. She  knows  herself  a  servant  of  whom  much 
is  required.  In  the  midst  of  a  world  of  foolishness 
and  vanity  she  maintains  simplicity  and  good  sense. 
She  is  equally  at  home  among  the  rich  and  the 
poor.  No  severer  test  of  the  Christian  life  than 
this  can  be  proposed  for  any  woman,  and  no  fairer 
type  of  character  is  to  be  met  than  that  which 


THE  RICH  225 

issues  from  such  a  test,  having  passed  through  the 
needle's  eye.  If  Jesus  Christ  should  come  again, 
he  would  know  what  it  has  cost  a  man  to  put  under 
his  foot  the  lust  of  riches,  or  a  woman  to  keep  her 
heart  clean  from  the  temptations  of  self-indulgence. 
Into  the  homes  of  such  men  and  women,  however 
splendid  their  homes  may  be,  Jesus  would  enter 
gladly,  as  he  entered  the  home  of  Zacchaeus  or 
that  of  Martha  and  Mary.  On  such  a  man,  on 
such  a  woman,  he  would  look  with  a  peculiar  love, 
as  he  looked  on  the  young  man  with  great  posses- 
sions. The  conflict  with  Mammon  has  prepared 
for  such  a  soul  the  way  to  eternal  habitations. 
The  servant  stands  ready  for  the  Master's  reckon- 
ing, and  the  Master  comes  and  says  :  **  Well  done, 
.  .  .  enter  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  CONCERNING  THE  CARE  OF 
THE  POOR 

Wiitn  sljall  t!jf  riflfjttous  anstorr  !jtm,  gagittfl,  EortJ,  toljmgafa  toe 
tiitt  an  tunflftcH,  anU  fell  ti)ee?  or  atfjtrgt,  anli  flabe  t^w  iJrink? 
2lnli  toijftt  sato  toe  tfjet  a  strangtr,  anU  took  tfjce  in  ?  or  nakeli,  anU 
clotJjcti  tljee  ?  ^nti  to!}nt  sato  toe  tijee  sirk,  or  in  prison,  anU  came 
unto  tijee  ?  ^nH  tlje  Iting  sijall  anstoer  anlJ  sag  unto  tljem,  Ferilg 
S  sag  unto  gou,  jinagmudj  as  ge  DiH  it  unto  one  of  tfjese  mg  bretljren, 
eben  tJjese  least,  ge  'Oiti  it  unto  me. 

When  one  turns  from  the  problem  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  rich  to  the  problem  of  the  care  of  the 
poor,  he  enters  a  region  of  thought  and  duty  much 
more  familiar  to  the  follower  of  Jesus  Christ. 
From  the  first  days  of  Christian  history  until  now 
the  duties  of  compassion  for  the  unfortunate  and 
of  help  for  the  helpless  have  been  among  the  ele- 
mentary virtues  of  the  Christian  life.  The  transi- 
tion made  by  the  ministry  of  Jesus  in  the  history 
of  philanthropy  is  hardly  less  remarkable  than  the 
transition  made  in  the  history  of  theology.  With 
the  new  thought  of  God  came  a  new  love  for  man. 
The  **  Caritas  "  of  the  Christian  was  a  fundament- 
ally different  quality  from  the  "  Prodigalitas "  of 
the  Roman. 

This  statement,  however,  must  be  at  once 
226 


THE   CARE   OF   THE   POOR  227 

relieved  of  a  common  but  unjustified  form  of  exag- 
geration. Modern  apologists  of  Christianity  are 
in  the  habit  of  describing  the  contrast  between 
pre-Christian  philanthropy  and  the  charity  which 
followed  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  a  contrast 
between  absolute  darkness  and  dazzling  light,  a 
revolution  in  human  relationships  which  for  the 
first  time  in  history  disclosed  the  meaning  of 
the  great  word  Love.  "The  world  before  Christ 
came,"  it  is  freely  affirmed,  "was  a  world  without 
love ; "  "  Egoism  was  the  ruling  spirit  of  antiquity ; " 
"The  human  race  had  forgotten  God ;  "  "  The  fam- 
ily and  marriage  were  only  political  institutions  ; " 
"  Without  the  gospel  society  would  have  been  dis- 
solved, humanity  would  have  perished  hopelessly  in 
a  bottomless  abyss  ;  "  "  Poverty  was  considered  a 
disgrace  that  could  only  be  endured  by  low  and 
bad  men."^  These  defenders  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion err  through  excessive  zeal.  It  is  not  only 
inherently  improbable  that  the  virtues  of  Christi- 
anity should  have  been  thrust  upon  a  wholly  unre- 
sponsive world,  as  though  a  flower  stuck  into  a 
sterile  soil  should  come  to  bloom,  but  it  is  also 
a  superficial  scholarship  which  discovers  in  the 
ancient  world  no  good  ground  for  the  sowing  of 
such  virtues. 

1  Uhlhorn,  "Christian  Charity  in  the  Early  Church,"  1883,  Ch.  I ; 
Schmidt,  "The  Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity,"  1889,  pp.  107, 
115,  139.  See  also,  for  further  social  apologetics  of  Christianity, 
C.  L.  Brace,  "Gesta  Christi,"  1884.  Compare  the  more  discrimi- 
nating treatment  in  Lecky,  "  History  of  European  Morals,"  1 870, 
Vol.  II,  Ch.  IV. 


228      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

On  the  one  hand,  the  Jewish  tradition,  which 
Christianity  inherited,  abounded  not  only  in  noble 
utterances  of  the  sentiment  of  compassion,  but  also 
in  elaborate  arrangements  for  the  practical  relief 
of  the  poor.  "Blessed  is  he  that  considereth  the 
poor;"^  "He  that  hath  pity  on  the  poor,  happy 
is  he  ;  "  2  "  Thou  shalt  surely  open  thine  hand 
unto  thy  brother,  to  thy  needy,  and  to  thy  poor, 
in  thy  land ; "  ^  "  Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have 
chosen  ?  ...  to  deal  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and 
that  thou  bring  the  poor  that  are  cast  out  to  thy 
house.?"*  —  these  exhortations  represent  not  only 
the  principles  of  Old  Testament  religion,  but  the 
actual  conduct  of  the  devout.  The  Hebrew  race, 
throughout  its  entire  history,  has  been  endowed 
with  a  peculiar  sense  of  responsibility  for  its 
weaker  brethren,  and  in  modern  life  is  excelled  by 
no  element  in  any  community  in  thoroughness  and 
munificence  of  organized  charity.^ 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  we  turn  to  the  Roman 
civilization  in  which  the  Christian  reUgion  found 
its  expansion  and  stability,  we  are  confronted,  it 
must  be  admitted,  by  conditions  of  the  gravest 
social  corruption  and  moral  decline.  These  ex- 
cesses of  a  debauched  and  decadent  aristocracy, 
however,  do  not  constitute  a  complete  record  of 

iPs.  xli.  I.  »Deut.  XV.  ii. 

^  Prov.  xiv.  21.  *  Is.  Iviii.  6,  7. 

6  Charities  Review,  Vol.  II,  p.  21  ff.,  F.  G.  Peabody,  "The 
Modern  Charity- worker  "  (addressed  to  the  United  Hebrew  CHiari- 
ties  of  New  York  City). 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  229 

the  social  life  of  the  Roman  world.  By  fixing 
attention  on  the  immorality  of  the  ruling  class, 
and  by  utilizing  such  evidence  concerning  it  as 
is  contributed  by  the  Satirists  on  the  one  hand, 
and  by  the  Stoics  on  the  other,  it  is  possible  to 
describe  the  social  life  of  Rome  as  one  of  the 
most  flagrant  domestic  looseness  and  most  hope- 
less social  decadence.  The  historical  romances 
which  reproduce  these  conditions  of  the  Augus- 
tan age  join  with  the  apologists  of  Christianity 
in  portraying  this  moral  bankruptcy,  and  the 
collapse  of  Roman  power  through  loss  of  moral 
virility  is  the  most  solemn  proof  which  history 
provides  that  righteousness  alone  exalteth  a  peo- 
ple. Yet  such  a  judgment,  if  passed  upon  the 
mass  of  Roman  life,  would  be  as  extravagant 
as  a  judgment  of  American  civilization  derived 
from  the  literature  and  the  newspapers  which 
find  their  material  in  the  follies  and  sins  of  the 
luxurious,  pleasure-hunting,  and  unbridled  rich. 
Beneath  the  depravity  of  Roman  aristocracy  and 
the  corruption  of  Roman  government  there  still 
survived,  especially  in  the  provincial  towns,  an 
atmosphere  of  unspoiled  social  life  in  which  the 
ideals    of    Christianity    might    naturally    unfold.^ 

1 A  just  picture  of  the  characteristics  of  Roman  social  life  may 
be  derived  from  Friedlander,  "  Sittengeschichte  Rom's,"  6.  Aufl., 
1888-1890,  esp.  Ill,  514  ff. ;  Keim,  "  Rom  und  das  Christentum  "; 
Mommsen,  "  History  of  Rome,"  V,  Chs.  XI  and  XII  ;  Pearson  and 
Strong,  "  Juvenal "  (Introduction,  chapter  on  Roman  life) ;  Reville, 
*♦  La  Religion  k  Rome  sous  les  Sev^res  "  ;  Coulanges,  "  The  Ancient 
City,"  1884;    Church,  "The  Gifts  of  Civilization,"  i88o,  147  flf. 


230      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Conclusive  evidence  of  this  survival  may  be  de- 
rived, for  example,  from  the  monuments  which 
recalled  the  virtues  of  the  dead.  At  the  very 
period  when  licentiousness  and  brutality  were  cor- 
roding the  life  of  the  luxurious,  these  silent  Wit- 
nesses testify  that  in  the  great  body  of  the  popu- 
lation a  way  of  life  still  prevailed  which  was  tranquil, 
domestic,  compassionate,  unostentatious  and  calm.^ 
It  was  in  this  soil  of  the  surviving  traditions  of 
Rome  and  the  still  flourishing  traditions  of  Israel 
that  the  philanthropy  of  the  Christian  religion 
took  root.  Without  such  a  soil  Christian  charity 
would  have  been  a  seed  sown  by  the  wayside. 
The  expansion  of  the  range  and  depth  of  philan- 
thropy accomplished  by  Christianity  was  beyond 
doubt  a  mighty  transition  in  the  evolution  of 
human  character,  but  it  was  not  a  miraculous 
transformation  of  human  character.  God  had  not 
left  himself  without  witnesses  in  the  pre-Christian 
world.  Legal  and  ostentatious  as  was  the  philan- 
thropy of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  the  Hebrew 
race  still  maintained  in  many  devout  homes  its 
national  virtue  of  compassion,  and  in  such  a  home 
Jesus  was  born.      Prodigal  as  were  the  vices   of 

(Civilization  before  and  after  Christianity) ;  and  the  striking  essay 
by  Bosanquet  on  "  Paganism  and  Christianity  "  in  his  "  Civiluation 
of  Christendom,"  1893. 

"^  E.g.  Wilmanns,  "  Exempla  inscriptionorum  Latinarum,"  1873, 
pp.  71,  147,  150,  168,  and  the  touching  eulogy  of  the  girl  Minicia 
Marcella,  by  the  younger  Pliny  (Ep.  V,  16),  translated,  with  a 
description  of  the  newly  discovered  tomb,  by  Lanciani,  "  Ancient 
Rome  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Discoveries,"  p.  282. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  231 

Roman  rulers,  the  Roman  world  had  not  wholly 
abandoned  its  ancient  ways  of  domestic  integrity 
and  social  peace,  and  among  such  Roman  homes, 
in  cities  of  the  Roman  provinces,  there  was  a  wel- 
come for  the  missionary  preaching  of  St.  Paul. 

Yet,  if  one  may  fairly  call  the  perfected  rose  a 
different  flower  from  its  wayside  progenitor,  it 
remains  true  that  the  "  Caritas"  of  the  Christian 
spirit  was  a  new  virtue,  with  an  aroma  of  its  own. 
"Christianity,"  said  Mr.  Lecky,  "for  the  first  time 
made  charity  a  rudimentary  virtue."  ^  It  is  not, 
however,  its  rudimentariness  which  gives  to  Chris- 
tian philanthropy  a  peculiar  beauty  and  fragrance  ; 
it  is  the  scope  of  its  sympathy,  the  dimensions 
of  its  giving,  and  its  recognition  of  fellowship 
with  lives  hitherto  ignored  or  rejected  by  the 
world.  The  worship  and  the  fraternal  relations 
of  the  first  Christians  abound  in  a  quality  of  com- 
prehensive tenderness  quite  unparalleled  either 
in  Rome  or  in  Israel.  In  the  earliest  forms  of 
Christian  worship  are  special  prayers  for  the  poor, 
the  outcast,  the  prisoners.  "Save  among  us,"  con- 
cludes the  first  epistle  of  Clement  of  Rome,  "  those 
who  are  in  tribulation,  have  mercy  on  the  lowly ; 
lift  up  the  fallen ;  show  thyself  unto  the  needy ; 
heal  the  ungodly ;  convert  the  wanderers  of  the 
people ;  feed  the  hungry ;  release  our  prisoners ; 
raise  up  the  weak;  comfort  the  faint-hearted. "* 
The  same  spirit  of  tender  and  self-effacing  service 

1 "  History  of  European  Morals,"  II,  84. 

2  Lightfoot,  "Clement  of  Rome,"  Appendix,  p.  376. 


232      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

is  repeated  in  all  the  early  liturgies,  adorns  the 
conduct  of  the  primitive  congregations,  and  illumi- 
nates the  dark  period  of  theological  controversy 
in  which  the  first  fair  visions  of  the  Christian 
Church  were  so  soon  to  be  eclipsed.  From  cen- 
tury to  century  this  vast  enterprise  of  Christian 
charity  has  expanded  with  the  growth  of  the 
Church  ;  has  atoned  for  many  superfluous  or  cruel 
controversies ;  has  brightened  the  sombre  history 
of  monasticism  and  of  the  mendicant  Orders ;  and 
has  drawn  to  the  influence  of  the  Christian  religion 
millions  of  persons  who  could  not  have  been  com- 
pelled by  threats  of  perdition,  but  who  could  not 
turn  from  the  witness  of  love.  Never  was  this 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  poor  so  profoundly 
felt  by  the  Christian  Church  as  at  the  present 
time.  No  body  of  Christians,  however  humble, 
can  maintain  its  self-respect  without  an  elaborate 
organization  of  compassion  and  relief.  The  Church 
welcomes  for  itself  not  only  the  test  of  truth,  but 
the  test  of  public  utility.  "I  by  my  works  will 
shew  thee,"  it  says,  "my  faith." ^  The  giving 
and  doing  of  Christians  has  become  a  vast  and 
elaborate  form  of  business.  Special  churches  are 
established  to  be  agencies  of  philanthropic  work 
as  much  as  places  of  preaching  and  prayer.  To 
many  a  modern  mind  which  dismisses  the  claims 
of  Christianity  to  dogmatic  truth,  its  maintenance 
is  abundantly  justified  as  an  instrument  of  human 
pity  and  brotherhood. 

1  James  ii.  i8. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  233 

To  all  these  manifestations  of  the  Christian 
spirit  may  be  added  many  vast  undertakings  of 
secular  charity,  which,  even  when  dictated  by 
social  and  political  prudence,  depend  for  effective- 
ness in  large  degree  on  the  extraordinary  power  of 
the  Christian  tradition.  Official  relief  is  tempered 
by  Christian  tenderness,  the  homes  of  the  poor  are 
brightened  by  Christian  visitation,  and  many  an 
institution  or  "settlement"  from  which  Christian 
teaching  is  formally  excluded  is  in  its  effect  an 
instrument  of  Christian  love.  Were  it  not  for  the 
general  acceptance  of  this  Christian  teaching  of 
social  responsibility,  the  burden  which  the  relief 
of  the  poor  lays  upon  the  self-supporting  would 
not  be  uncomplainingly  borne.  Few  persons  re- 
flect on  the  enormous  sums  annually  devoted  in 
all  civilized  countries  to  works  of  charity.  Public 
relief  in  the  United  States  taxes  the  entire  popula- 
tion not  less  than  two  dollars  per  capita  for  the 
care  of  the  dependent  classes  ;  private  benefaction 
through  societies  and  individuals  probably  costs 
the  community  an  equal  sum ;  and  when  to  this  is 
added  the  amount  contributed  by  the  churches  for 
their  own  poor,  and  for  all  forms  of  philanthropic 
service,  we  have  a  bewildering  total  to  represent 
the  charity  of  the  present  age.^     The  same  munifi- 

1  Details  and  statistics  of  charity  in  the  United  States  are  given 
in:  "Jahrb.  fur  Nationalokonomie  und  Statistik,"  1897;  C.  R. 
Henderson, "  Armenwesen  in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten  Nord  Ameri- 
ka's  "  (with  many  references) ;  and  in :  Conrad,  "  Handworterbuch 
der  Staatswissenschaften,"  2,  Aufl.,  1898;  F.  G.  Peabody,  art.  "Ar- 
menwesen in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten." 


234      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

cence  prevails  in  other  Christian  countries.  A 
prodigality  of  generosity  has  been  reached  which 
the  history  of  philanthropy  has  never  witnessed 
before,  and  for  which  the  command  of  Jesus,  "  Dis- 
tribute unto  the  poor,"  ^  is  in  a  very  large  degree 
responsible.  Whatever  other  teachings  of  the 
gospel  may  still  appear  to  be  impracticable  or 
Utopian,  this  one  command,  it  would  seem,  has 
at  last  become  adequately  obeyed. 

It  is  precisely  at  this  point,  however,  where  the 
Christian  conscience  might  seem  to  find  some 
satisfaction,  and  where  at  least  one  social  problem 
might  seem  to  approach  its  solution,  that  the  real 
problem  of  charity  in  its  modern  form  first  comes 
into  view.  We  have  already  noticed  the  eagerness 
and  absorbing  interest  with  which  the  modern 
social  question  in  all  its  illustrations  turns  from 
the  study  of  effects  to  the  study  of  causes,  from 
the  alleviating  of  conditions  to  the  examination 
of  those  conditions  themselves.  Here,  also,  is  the 
mark  of  modern  charity.  This  prodigious  move- 
ment of  sentiment  and  compassion  is  now  very 
generally  observed,  not  with  undiscriminating  ad- 
miration, but  with  a  high  degree  of  suspicion  and 
criticism.  What,  it  is  asked,  does  this  vast  enter- 
prise of  Christian  generosity  in  reality  accomplish 
beyond  the  selfish  satisfaction  of  the  pious  givers 
and  the  temporary  protection  and  peace  of  the 
State.?  Is  it  certain  that  this  enormous  expendi- 
ture of  sympathy  and  of  money  is  doing  more  good 

1  Liike  xviii.  22. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         235 

than  harm  ?  Has  the  volume  of  poverty  grown 
distinctly  less  ?  Is  this  prodigality  of  relief  a 
matter  for  self-congratulation  and  pride,  or  is  it  to 
be  regarded  as  in  many  respects  a  social  peril  ? 
Is  not  a  distinguished  critic  of  social  tendencies 
justified  in  saying  that  "the  next  most  pernicious 
thing  to  vice  is  charity  in  its  broad  and  popular 
sense  "  ?  ^ 

And  if  this  arraignment  of  the  total  effect  of 
modern  charity  is  in  any  degree  just,  should  it 
not  be  brought  with  even  more  severity  against 
the  special  charity  of  the  Christian  Church? 
Where  do  hypocrisy  and  fraud  find  so  many  cred- 
ulous victims  as  among  the  pious  ?  Who  are  so 
emotional  in  their  philanthropy  and  so  hard  to 
convert  to  self-restraint  and  to  scientific  methods 
as  the  religious  people  ?  Where  does  divided 
effort  so  often  duplicate  relief  and  encourage  de- 
ception as  in  the  schismatic  generosity  of  the 
divided  Church  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  Christian 
philanthropy  has  in  large  degree  utilized  charity, 
not  primarily  for  the  good  of  the  receivers,  but  for 
the  good  of  the  givers,  "simply  and  exclusively,"  as 
Mr.  Lecky  remarks,  "  for  their  own  spiritual  bene- 
fit "  ?2  Was  it  not  this  emphasis  on  almsgiving  as 
a  virtue  which  soon  induced  Christians  to  regard 
mendicancy  and  asceticism  as  the  marks  of  a  saint ; 
and  must  not  the  monastic  system,  in  spite  of  all 

1  W.  G.  Sumner,  "  What  Social  Classes  owe  to  Each  Other," 
1883.  p.  157. 

2  '•  History  of  European  Morals,"  II,  99. 


236      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

its  noble  traits,  be  described,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  social  progress,  as  a  colossal  mistake? 
Did  it  not,  as  Mr.  Lecky  goes  on  to  say,  "with- 
draw multitudes  from  all  production,  encourage  a 
blind  and  pernicious  almsgiving,  encourage  habits 
of  improvidence  among  the  poorer  classes,  paralyze 
all  energy,  and  prove  an  insuperable  barrier  to 
material  progress  "  ?  Are  there  not  still  surviving 
in  many  branches  of  the  Christian  Church  this  false 
estimate  of  poverty  and  this  morbid  satisfaction  in 
pious  zeal  ?  Are  there  not  even  more  radical  criti- 
cisms which  open  from  this  reconsideration  of 
Christian  charity?  Should  a  social  order  which 
has  thus  failed  to  eradicate  poverty  be  permitted 
further  trial?  Is  not  the  continued  distinction 
of  wealth  and  poverty,  which  gives  to  Christian 
philanthropy  its  opportunity,  an  outright  confes- 
sion that  Christianity  is  a  failure?  Is  not  the 
whole  work  of  charity  an  insult  to  those  who  claim, 
not  a  share  in  the  rich  man's  bounty,  but  a  right 
to  the  rich  man's  possessions  ?  Ought  there  to  be 
any  poor  ?  Is  not  this  alleviating  service  of  Chris- 
tian charity  rightly  described  by  the  modern  revo- 
lutionist as  an  anaesthetic  administered  to  the  poor 
to  keep  them  from  realizing  their  condition  ? 

These  questions  lead  us  beyond  the  problem  of  ■ 
charity  to  the  problem  of  industrial  revolution  and 
reconstruction,  and  must  be  for  the  moment  post- 
poned. It  is  enough  to  notice  that  in  the  relief 
of  the  poor  we  are  confronted  by  the  most  seri- 
ous and  searching  scepticism  concerning  both  the 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         23/ 

methods  and  the  spirit  of  charity  as  commonly 
administered.  There  must  be,  it  would  seem,  a 
reconsideration  of  the  first  principles  of  Christian 
compassion.  Is  this  beautiful  and  bountiful  obe- 
dience to  the  instinct  of  Christian  love  in  which, 
as  has  been  believed,  the  Christian  spirit  most 
perfectly  utters  itself,  on  the  whole,  doing  more 
good  than  harm ;  and  may  it  not  soon  be  regarded, 
as  the  history  of  monasticism  is  now  commonly 
regarded,  as  the  witness  of  a  splendid  mistake,  of 
which  the  future  will  say,  as  was  said  of  the  charge 
of  Balaklava,  that  it  was  magnificent,  but  not  war? 
If,  then,  an  issue  of  this  nature  presents  itself 
between  the  modern  conception  of  social  progress 
and  the  common  practice  of  Christian  charity, 
what  are  we  to  conclude  concerning  the  authority 
of  Jesus  as  a  guide  for  our  philanthropy  ?  Must 
we  regard  his  teaching  as  unadapted  to  a  scientific 
and  complex  age,  the  beautiful  survival  of  a  remote 
and  Oriental  world  ?  Is  it  possible  for  the  poor 
man  of  the  present  time  to  receive  with  gratitude 
such  a  message  as,  "  Be  not  anxious  for  your  life, 
what  ye  shall  eat " ;  ^  and  is  it  any  more  possible 
for  the  rich  man  of  the  present  time  to  obey  the 
saying :  "  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from 
him  that  would  borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou 
away"?2  One  who  would  answer  these  ques- 
tions cannot  content  himself  with  a  general  im- 
pression derived  from  the  habits  of  philanthropy 
which  have  prevailed  among  the  followers  of 
1  Luke  xii.  22.  ^  Matt.  v.  42. 


238      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Jesus,  but  must  return,  with  closer  scrutiny,  to 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  himself ;  and  such  reexami- 
nation of  that  teaching  discovers  it  to  be  by  no 
means  so  impracticable  as  its  critics  have  often 
assumed  it  to  be,  or  so  demoralizing  as  its  adhe- 
rents have  often  forced  it  to  appear.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  teaching  of  Jesus,  when  considered,  not 
in  its  letter,  but  in  its  dominating  spirit,  has  ex- 
traordinary applicability  to  the  needs  and  problems 
of  modern  philanthropy,  and  provides  in  itself  the 
best  corrective  for  those  grave  errors  in  charity 
which  have  been  committed  by  Christians  in  their 
Master's  name. 

As  one  thus  approaches  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
concerning  the  care  of  the  poor,  he  is  first  of  all 
struck  by  its  peculiar  tenderness  and  considera- 
tion for  all  who  are  unfortunate  or  distressed. 
Jesus  bears  the  burden  of  the  poor  always  on  his 
heart.  When  he  sends  word  to  the  Baptist  of 
the  signs  of  his  ministry,  he  uses  the  words  of 
Isaiah,  "The  poor  have  good  tidings  preached 
to  them ";  1  and  when,  again,  in  Nazareth  he 
reads  the  same  passage,  and  "the  eyes  of  all  in 
the  synagogue  were  fastened  on  him,"  he  says 
of  himself,  "  To-day  hath  this  scripture  been  ful- 
filled in  your  ears."^  Throughout  his  teaching 
Jesus  enforces  an  extraordinary  principle  of  moral 
classification.  He  is  amazingly  merciful  to  all 
burdened  lives,  even  when  those  lives  are  sinful; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  peculiarly  severe  in 

1  Matt.  xi.  5.  3  Luke  iv.  20,  21. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         239 

his  judgment  of  the  arrogant,  the  self-satisfied, 
the  purse-proud,  or  the  consciously  holy.  *'  Come 
unto  me,"  says  his  message  of  comfort,  "all  ye 
that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden ;"^  "Blessed  are 
the  meek," 2  "the  poor  in  spirit," ^  "ye  poor;"* 
"  Him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast 
out."^  The  care  of  the  poor  is  thus  a  self-evi- 
dent and  elementary  part  of  Christian  discipleship. 
Such  sayings  as :  "  Give  to  the  poor,"  ^  "  Distribute 
unto  the  poor,"^  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with 
you,"  ^  represent  a  corollary  of  the  gospel,  a  way 
of  life  which  will  necessarily  happen  as  one  seeks 
the  kingdom  of  God.  If  the  "little  flock"  of 
his  disciples  obey  his  teaching  they  will  "give 
alms,"  and  make  for  themselves  "purses  which 
wax  not  old,"  for  "where  your  treasure  is,  there 
will  your  heart  be  also."  ^ 

It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  in  these 
beautiful  utterances  of  comprehensive  pity,  and 
these  categorical  demands  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor,  there  is  not  at  once  indicated  the  precise 
manner  in  which  this  relief  is  to  be  conveyed. 
"Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,"^^  is  indeed  a 
dictum  of  the  gospel,  but  the  duty  it  enforces 
does  not  carry  with  it  a  positive  declaration  as 
to  what  one  shall  give,  or  with  what  intention 
he  shall  give,  or   under  what   limitation  or  prin- 

1  Matt.  xi.  28.  *  John  vi.  37.  ■  John  xii.  8. 

*  Matt.  V.  5.  ®  Matt.  xix.  21.  »  Luke  xii.  32-34. 
»  Matt.  V.  3.  '^  Luke  xviii.  22.  ^^  Matt.  v.  42. 

*  Luke  vi.  20. 


240      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

ciple  his  giving  shall  occur.  The  teaching 
of  Jesus  concerning  the  poor  is,  therefore,  not 
exhausted  in  this  undiscriminating  demand  for 
almsgiving.  Many  a  giver,  carelessly  distribut- 
ing to  the  poor,  fancies  that  he  is  satisfying  the 
demands  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  many  a  more  con- 
scientious disciple,  refusing  to  be  prudent  or  self- 
controlled  in  giving,  leans  on  the  words  of  his 
Master,  "Give  to  every  one  that  asketh  thee";^ 
when  in  reality  these  acts,  which  intend  to  express 
obedience  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  may  be  abso- 
lute disloyalty  to  its  true  intention.  Here,  as  in 
so  many  other  instances,  the  easy  acceptance  of 
the  letter  of  the  gospel  obscures  the  larger  doc- 
trine of  the  spirit.  For  the  prosperous  to  imagine 
that  thoughtless  almsgiving  satisfies  the  demand, 
*'  Give  to  the  poor,"  ^  is  as  superficial  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  gospel  as  it  is  for  the  poor  to 
imagine  that  mendicancy  is  endorsed  by  the  say- 
ing of  Jesus,  "Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you."^ 
The  teaching  of  Jesus,  in  its  essential  unity,  lies 
quite  behind  these  scattered  utterances  which 
seem  to  encourage  heedless  and  hurtful  relief.  It 
is  a  teaching  which  must  be  drawn,  not  only  from 
his  many  sayings  about  the  poor,  but  also  from  his 
habitual  way  of  dealing  with  the  poor ;  and,  thus 
collated  and  summed  up,  it  is  a  teaching  much 
more  profound,  and  very  much  more  difficult  to 
obey,  than  his  followers  have  been  on  the  whole 
inclined  to  believe. 

1  Luke  vi.  30.  ^  Matt.  xix.  21.  ^  Matt.  vii.  7. 


THE   CARE   OF  THE  POOR  24 1 

In  tracing  this  inner  spirit  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  there  must  be  first  recalled  two  general 
principles  of  the  gospel  which  have  been  already 
observed  as  governing  the  conduct  of  Jesus  to- 
ward the  rich.  One  of  these  is  his  relatively  low 
estimate  of  almsgiving  as  a  virtue.  He  assumes 
this  form  of  charity,  as  we  have  said,  to  be  a 
corollary  of  the  religious  life ;  he  is  ready  with 
his  praise  of  the  man  who  can  say,  "  The  half  of 
my  goods  I  give  to  the  poor " ;  ^  he  even  sets 
forth  as  a  test  of  God's  acceptance,  —  not  theo- 
logical correctness  or  ecclesiastical  conformity,  — 
but  loving  and  humble  service.  "  Come,  ye  blessed 
of  my  Father,"  he  says,  "inherit  the  kingdom 
prepared  for  you.  .  .  .  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
unto  one  of  these  my  brethren,  even  these  least, 
ye  did  it  unto  me."  ^  Yet,  praiseworthy  as  Jesus 
assumes  the  habit  of  almsgiving  to  be,  his  allu- 
sions to  it  are  in  many  instances  not  in  terms  of 
commendation,  but  in  terms  of  solemn  warning. 
He  observes  the  abuse,  the  ostentation,  and  the 
commercialism  of  much  which  passes  as  charity. 
"When  therefore  thou  doest  alms,"  he  says, 
"  sound  not  a  trumpet  before  thee ;  "  ^  "  Let  not 
thy  left  hand  know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth."  * 
In  the  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan^  the  disbursing 
of  money  for  relief  appears  to  be  one  of  the  least 
important  incidents.  The  priest  or  the  Levite  might 
have  subscribed  for  the  care  of  the  sufferer  without 

1  Luke  xix.  8.  *  Matt.  xxv.  34, 40.  *  Matt.  vi.  2. 

*  Matt.  vi.  3.  ^  Luke  x.  30-36. 

R 


242      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

proving  himself  thereby  a  "neighbor."  The  rich 
men,  "casting  their  gifts  into  the  treasury,"  ^  were 
viewed  by  Jesus  with  a  lofty  scorn  because  "these 
did  of  their  superfluity  cast  in  unto  the  gifts,"  ^  but 
his  face  lighted  up  with  joy  when  he  saw  one  poor 
widow  bring  an  offering  which  was  to  be,  not  com- 
mercially counted,  but  spiritually  weighed.  "  Of  a 
truth  I  say  unto  you,  This  poor  widow  cast  in  more 
than  they  all."  ^  Meeting,  as  Jesus  did,  from  day 
to  day  all  forms  of  suffering  and  mendicancy,  there 
is  no  record  of  his  giving  alms.  When  he  an- 
nounced the  signs  of  his  ministry  he  did  not 
open  the  book  where  it  is  written,  "Thou  shalt 
surely  open  thine  hand  unto  thy  brother ; "  *  he 
turned  to  the  greater,  though  to  many  a  poor 
man  the  less  welcome,  message  of  the  prophet, 
"The  poor  have  good  tidings  preached  to  them.."^ 
In  the  story  of  the  Last  Supper  there  seems  to 
be,  beneath  the  conversation  of  the  Teacher  and 
his  friends,  a  difference  of  mind  concerning  alms- 
giving. The  disciples,  we  read,  thought,  because 
Judas  had  the  bag,  that  Jesus  had  said  to  him 
"that  he  should  give  something  to  the  poor,"^ 
while  in  reality  it  was  of  something  infinitely 
removed  from  almsgiving  that  Jesus  spoke  to 
Judas.  Indeed,  it  seems  probable  that  the  traitor 
was  more  inclined  to  almsgiving  than  Jesus,  for 
it  was  Judas  who,  but  a  few  days  before,  had  said 
to  his  Master,  "  Why  was  not  this  ointment  sold 

^  Luke  xxi.  i,  '  Luke  xxi.  3.  ^  Matt.  xi.  5. 

2  Luke  xxi.  4.  *  Deut.  xv,  1 1,  «  John  xiii.  29. 


THE    CARE   OF   THE   POOR  243 

.  .  .  and  given  to  the  poor  ? "  ^  In  short,  Jesus 
regards  almsgiving  as  a  virtue,  but  as  a  virtue 
demanding  constant  watchfulness,  discipline,  and 
humility.  Charity,  in  this  form,  is  one  of  the  most 
elementary,  yet  one  of  the  most  misleading,  traits 
of  Christian  character.  Its  rank  among  the  vir- 
tues of  the  kingdom  depends,  not  upon  its  munifi- 
cence, but  upon  its  conveying  the  spirit  of  sacrifice 
and  consecration.  "Woe  unto  you,"  Jesus  goes 
so  far  as  to  say  to  the  Pharisees,  .  .  .  your  inward 
part  is  full  of  extortion  and  wickedness.  Ye 
foolish  ones,  .  .  .  give  for  alms  those  things  which 
are  within."  ^ 

The  second  aspect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  — to 
be  recalled  in  connection  with  the  problem  of  charity 
as  in  connection  with  that  of  wealth  —  is  the  doc- 
trine of  stewardship.  What  is  true  of  the  whole 
conduct  of  life  is  true  of  the  special  duty  of  benefi- 
cence. While  there  are  many  other  possible  direc- 
tions of  consecrated  activity,  that  on  which  Jesus 
most  repeatedly  dwells  is  the  conscientious  devo- 
tion of  life  to  that  special  trust  which  the  individ- 
ual finds  committed  to  his  hands.  Here  is  a  sphere 
of  charity  of  which  the  philanthropist,  as  a  rule, 
takes  slight  account.  It  is  entirely  possible  to 
manifest  the  scope  and  beauty  of  Christian  love 
without  going  beyond  one's  daily  business  or  one's 
commercial  opportunity.  Indeed,  the  special  com- 
mendation of  Jesus,  bestowed  upon  the  faithful 
servant,^  the  diligent  steward,*  and  the  watchful 

1  John  xii.  5.     *  Luke  xi.  39-42.     '  Matt.  xxv.  21.      *  Luke  xii.  42. 


244      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

porter,^  seems  to  indicate  that,  to  his  mind,  the 
best  opportunity  for  Christian  service  is  provided 
by  the  business  of  daily  life.  This  is  a  conception 
of  business  behind  which  many  persons  might  be 
inclined  to  hide,  as  though  the  processes  of  invest- 
ing and  bartering  and  employing  made  up  the  sum 
of  Christian  benevolence.  It  is  not,  however,  a 
gospel  of  Mam  monism  which  is  taught  by  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  He  finds  no  intrinsic  dignity  in 
buying  and  selling.  He  views  the  world  of  trade, 
on  the  contrary,  from  above,  in  the  light  of  his 
clear  distinction,  **  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mam- 
mon." 2  To  the  self-considering  and  grasping 
man  of  business  he  speaks  one  of  his  most  solemn 
warnings,  "  When  ye  shall  have  done  all  the  things 
that  are  commanded  you,  say.  We  are  unprofitable 
servants  ;  we  have  done  that  which  it  was  our  duty 
to  do."  ^  Stewardship,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  is 
not  mere  shrewdness,  or  enterprise,  or  success ;  it 
is  the  superadded  and  uncommercial  fidelity  which 
discovers  among  the  interests  of  Mammon  an  op- 
portunity for  the  generous  and  personal  service 
of  God.  A  business  man  may  so  administer  his 
affairs  that  they  shall  be  either  a  social  peril  or  a 
social  advantage,  an  obstruction  to  the  general 
welfare  or  a  channel  of  Christian  benevolence. 
If  the  business  principles  to  which  one  conforms 
are  honorable ;  if  his  dealings  with  his  employees 
are  just,  consistent,  and  personal ;  if  he  anticipates 
the  tidal  nature  of  industry  and  provides  for  con- 

1  Mark  xiii.  34.  ^  Matt.  vi.  24.  ^  Luke  xviL  lo. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         245 

tinuity  of  employment ;  if  his  prosperity  brings 
reward  to  all  concerned  in  procuring  it ;  if  his 
adversity  is  shared  by  employer  with  employed, 
and  the  distinction  of  hands  and  head  is  merged  in 
the  corporate  responsibility  of  all,  — -  such  a  person 
may  not  be  known  as  a  philanthropist  but  merely 
as  a  working-man  with  whom  one  wants  to  work, 
and  his  stewardship  may  not  be  charity  in  its 
technical  sense,  and  may,  indeed,  lose  much  of  its 
worth  if  it  becomes  tainted  with  the  patronage  or 
condescension  of  charity.  Yet,  even  if  such  con- 
scientiousness in  business  is  not  charity,  it  at  least 
makes  unnecessary  much  of  what  is  known  as 
charity,  and  corrects,  in  its  own  sphere,  those 
derangements  of  the  business  world  which  bring 
as  their  consequences  poverty  and  the  need  of  its 
relief.  Thus,  the  roots  of  charity  lie  in  the  larger 
problem  of  the  industrial  order,  and  the  most 
unquestionable  and  most  effective  philanthropy 
is  to  be  found  in  industrial  justice,  progress,  and 
peace.  The  doctrine  of  stewardship  does  not  ex- 
clude other  ways  of  caring  for  the  poor,  but  it 
lays  as  the  foundation  of  judicious  charity  the 
scrupulous  administration  of  one's  own  business 
as  a  contribution  to  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Nor  is  this  teaching  of  Jesus  for  men  alone. 
Many  a  woman  in  the  modern  world  needs  to 
learn  that  Christian  charity,  in  a  very  different 
sense  from  that  commonly  accepted,  begins  at 
home.  It  is  a  mockery  of  Christian  obedience  to 
be  zealous  in  the  care  of  the  poor  who  are  at  a 


246      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

distance,  and  to  fail  in  considerateness  to  those 
who  are  in  one's  own  employ.  It  is  more  unchari- 
table to  yield  to  the  mania  for  cheapness  in  one's 
commercial  purchases,  than  to  refuse  alms  to  a 
beggar  in  the  street.  To  do  the  latter  is  to  feel 
a  temporary  twinge  of  personal  self-inquiry  ;  to 
do  the  former  is  to  become  in  so  far  responsible 
for  cheap  work,  cheap  wages,  cheap  morality,  cheap 
disease,  and  death.  It  is  a  still  graver  offence  to 
obey  the  saying  of  Jesus,  "  Distribute  unto  the 
poor,"  ^  and  to  leave  unfulfilled  that  command  of 
the  apostle,  "  Owe  no  man  anything."  ^  The  mark 
of  the  unrighteous  steward  was  that  he  was  set  to 
render  an  account  for  his  master,^  and  used  the 
money  for  spurious  philanthropy.  The  same  con- 
demnation should  be  passed  on  one  who  figures  on 
subscription  lists  of  charities,  and  delays  the  pay- 
ment of  just  commercial  dues.  "These  ye  ought 
to  have  done,  and  not  to  have  left  the  other  ^ 
undone."*  The  doctrine  of  stewardship  has  many 
branches,  but  its  roots  are  to  be  sought  in  the 
elementary  opportunities  of  the  shop  and  the 
home. 

Such  are  some  of  the  preliminary  aspects  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  care  of  the 
poor.  It  is  a  teaching  which  subordinates  almsgiv- 
ing and  weighs  the  general  conduct  of  life.  The 
teaching  has  a  distinctly  modern  note.  It  is  in 
unison   with   the    precept   of    organized    charity, 

1  Luke  xviii.  22.  •  Luke  xvi.  2. 

2  Rom.  xiii.  8.  *  Matt,  xxiii.  23. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         247 

"  Not  alms  but  a  friend  " ;  it  counts  as  the  first 
principles  of  the  relief  of  the  poor,  the  better- 
ing of  industrial  conditions  and  the  abandoning 
every  form  of  industrial  injustice.  Yet  that  which 
seems  a  modern  note  is  in  reality  its  note  of  univer- 
sality. Jesus,  here  as  elsewhere,  is  looking  at  the 
world  from  above,  with  his  hope  set  on  the  com- 
prehensive principles  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
from  this  point  of  view  the  special  problem  of  the 
care  of  the  poor  is  seen  to  be,  not  circumscribed 
by  schemes  of  temporary  relief,  but  a  part  of  the 
universal  problem  of  redeeming  and  renewing 
human  character.  If  the  mind  of  Jesus  had  been 
turned  from  its  supreme  intention  even  by  his 
compassion  for  the  beggars  who  flocked  about  his 
path,  he  would  have  scattered  alms  among  them 
with  as  short-sighted  and  prodigal  a  generosity  as 
many  of  his  modern  followers  have  permitted 
themselves  in  their  Master's  name  ;  but  being  pri- 
marily concerned  with  the  revelation  of  God  in 
the  souls  of  men,  Jesus  surveys  the  problem  of 
charity  in  its  larger  relations ;  and  that  broader 
horizon  of  his  teaching  gives  him  reserve,  sanity, 
and  comprehensiveness  of  view. 

These  preliminary  considerations,  however,  do 
not  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  teacTiing  of 
Jesus  has  no  immediate  and  positive  instructions 
to  offer  about  the  care  of  the  poor.  On  the  con- 
trary, as  one  draws  nearer  to  his  actual  dealing 
with  specific  cases  of  relief,  and  observes  his  con- 
duct in  its  practical  details,  the  word  which  has 


248     "JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

been  preserved  to  us  by  the  loving  hand  of  Paul 
proves  itself  characteristic  of  the  method  of  Jesus, 
"  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive."  ^ 
These  specific  instructions  issue  for  the  most  part 
from  the  second  social  principle  of  Jesus,  while  his 
general  view  of  the  care  of  the  poor,  as  we  have 
just  seen,  proceeds  from  his  first  social  principle. 
His  wisdom  in  charity  comes  of  his  viewing  the 
problem  from  above,  his  method  in  charity  comes 
of  his  approaching  the  problem  from  within. 

It  is  difficult  to  overestimate  the  significance  of 
the  fact  that  in  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  poor 
he  deals  almost  exclusively  with  individuals.  He 
had  compassion,  it  is  true,  on  the  multitudes  and 
fed  them,  but  this  was  explicitly  announced  by  him 
to  be  **  because  they  continue  with  me  now  three 
days  and  have  nothing  to  eat :  and  I  would  not 
send  them  away  fasting,  lest  haply  they  faint  in 
the  way."  2  His  compassion  for  the  beggars,  the 
blind,  the  poor,  the  sick,  is,  almost  invariably,  an 
individualized,  painstaking  pity,  with  special  adap- 
tation to  each  separate  case.  It  does  not  seem 
to  occur  to  him  that  he  might  multiply  the  effect 
of  his  power,  and  by  a  single  effort  heal  or  com- 
fort many.  He  knows  no  other  way  of  relief  than 
that  the  giver  should  put  himself  in  loving  and 
vital  relation  with  the  receiver,  and  establish  the 
contagion  of  the  strength-communicating  life. 

The  summary  of  this  teaching  of  individualized 
relief  is   to  be  found  in  the  story  of  the  Good 

1  Acts  XX.  35.  «  Matt.  XV.  32. 


r    ^  of TH£ 
THE   CARE    OF   TB.^'^^i^^^^S^     249 

Samaritan,^  —  a  story  of  such  exquisite  complete- 
ness that  one  is  tempted  to  study  it  as  a  work  of 
art  and  to  prize  each  phrase  as  a  separate  gem. 
The  fundamental  beauty  of  the  story,  however, 
lies  in  the  setting  of  all  these  details  round  one 
central  lesson.  The  lawyer,  after  quoting  from 
the  earlier  social  legislation  the  saying,  **Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,  "^  goes  on 
to  ask  from  Jesus  an  interpretation  of  this  law 
of  friendliness.  Jesus  replies  that  the  test  of 
friendship  is  in  the  painstaking  quality,  the  wise 
adaptation,  and  the  continuity,  of  friendly  service. 
There  lies  by  the  roadside  what  modern  charity 
would  describe  as  a  "  case,"  a  stranger,  stripped, 
half  dead,  and  in  need  of  a  friend.  Neither  the 
priest  nor  the  Levite,  it  may  be  believed,  are 
brutal.  They  hurry  by  because  they  know  that 
the  friendship  which  the  case  demands  means  an 
expenditure  of  more  time  and  trouble  than  they 
can  afford.  Both  are  on  their  way  to  important 
duties.  Either  of  them  would  gladly  report  the 
"  case  "  to  the  proper  authorities  at  Jerusalem,  but 
their  own  time  and  their  own  personal  service 
are  precisely  what  they  cannot  spare,  and  they 
pass  by  on  the  other  side.  The  Samaritan  also 
is  in  haste.  Up  that  hot  and  shadeless  valley 
he  is  driving  his  beast,  laden  with  oil  and  wine 
for  the  Jerusalem  bazaars.  His  compassion,  how- 
ever, conquers  his  prudence.  He  halts,  goes  to 
the  stranger,  assuages  his  wounds,  lifts  him  on 
1  Luke  X.  30-35.  2  Lev.  xix.  18. 


250      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

his  own  beast,  brings  him  to  a  wayside  inn,  pro- 
vides for  his  care,  and  gives  assurance  that  he 
shall  not  be  forgotten.  Nothing  can  describe 
with  more  precision  the  exact  programme  which 
scientific  charity  has  by  degrees  worked  out  to 
guide  the  visitation  of  the  poor  —  first,  friendly 
compassion,  then  the  relief  of  temporary  necessity, 
then  the  transfer  of  the  case  to  restorative  con- 
ditions, finally  the  use  of  money,  not  as  alms  for 
the  helpless,  but  to  maintain  continuity  of  relief. 
It  was  to  the  "host,"  not  to  the  *' case,"  that 
the  "neighbour"  gave  his  money,  saying,  "Take 
care  of  him  ;  and  whatsoever  thou  spendest  more, 
I,  when  I  come  back  again,  will  repay  thee."  ^ 
Here  is  a  method  of  relief  which  may  appear 
elementary  and  archaic  among  the  vast  organiza- 
tions and  instrumentalities  of  modern  charity. 
It  may  seem  as  if  this  simplicity  of  method 
could  have  no  place  in  the  complex  conditions  of 
modern  life.  This  view,  however,  was  precisely 
the  view  of  individualized  charity  which  was,  in 
all  probability,  held  by  the  Pharisee  and  the 
Levite.  They  too  were  involved  in  so  many  and 
such  serious  interests,  that  the  help  of  the  help- 
less must  of  necessity  be  deputed  to  others,  and 
they  trusted  for  the  provision  of  relief  to  the 
elaborate  organizations  of  charity  which  existed 
in  their  nation.  The  chief  obstacle,  that  is  to 
say,  to  Christian  charity,  now  as  then,  is  the  pre- 
occupation of  the  individual  with  his  own  affairs 
1  Luke  X.  35. 


THE   CARE   OF   THE   POOR  2$  I 

and  the  consequent  dependence  upon  impersonal 
methods  of  relief ;  and  the  reform  in  method 
now  proposed  in  the  name  of  scientific  charity 
is,  in  reality,  nothing  else  than  a  return  to  the 
principles  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 

Two  words  sum  up  the  change  of  method  advo- 
cated at  the  present  time  by  scientific  charity. 
The  first  word  is  classification ;  the  second  is  anti- 
institutionalism.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  observed 
that  the  rehef  of  the  poor  under  modern  conditions 
has  become  too  complicated  and  varied  an  affair 
to  be  dealt  with  in  any  single  way.  In  the  homo- 
geneous social  life  which  once  prevailed  in  small 
and  isolated  towns,  charity  was  simply  the  helping 
hand  of  a  neighbor  held  out  to  the  unfortunate  or 
disabled  by  his  side.  In  the  great  modern  city, 
on  the  other  hand,  charity  deals  with  many  dis- 
tinct types ;  and  a  method  which  deals  with  these 
types  indiscriminately  leads  to  social  demoraliza- 
tion and  disaster.^  Of  such  distinct  types  the 
most  conspicuous  are  three.  In  the  first  place 
there  are  what  maybe  called  the  "can't-works," 
the  aged,  sick,  and  defective,  who  must  receive 
gentle  and  continuous  consideration ;  in  the  sec- 
ond place  there  are  the  "  out-of-works,"  able  to 
labor  but  temporarily  unemployed,  for  whom  work 
must  be  found;  and  to  these  two  separate  classes 
must  be  added  as  a  third  and  distinct  type  the 
"  won't-works,"   the   professionally   idle,    vagrant, 

1  Charities  Review^  March,  1897,  F.  G.  Peabody,  "The  Modern 
Charity-worker." 


252      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

mendicant  poor.  To  deal  with  these  three  types 
under  one  method  is  to  do  harm  to  all.  To  house 
the  worthy  poor  with  criminals  is  to  insult  them  ; 
to  provide  the  out-of-works  with  alms  instead  of 
with  work  is  to  degrade  them ;  to  maintain  the 
won't-works  in  idleness  is  to  become  responsible 
for  the  permanence  of  a  vagrant  class.  Classifica- 
tion, the  discrimination  of  types,  flexibility  and 
adaptability  of  method, — these  are  the  elementary 
principles  of  scientific  charity.  Pity  for  one  type, 
work  for  another,  correction  for  the  third,  must  be 
offered ;  and  these  three  distinct  demands  call  for 
three  distinct  ways  of  administration.  The  non- 
effective and  the  willingly  idle  must  not  be  per- 
mitted to  hang  about  the  necks  of  those  who  have 
both  the  capacity  and  the  desire  to  rise.  The  move- 
ment of  social  life  is  like  the  movement  of  an 
army  in  the  field.  There  is  the  march  of  the 
effective  troops,  and  there  is  also  the  merciful 
attendance  of  the  Red  Cross  nurses,  caring  for  the 
wounded,  tending  the  sick,  and  mitigating  the 
hardships  of  battle.  One  cannot  say  that  nursing 
is  less  noble  or  less  essential  than  fighting;  but 
one  must  say  that  it  ought  not  to  impede  or  em- 
barrass the  fighting  capacity  of  the  army.  After 
all,  the  campaign  must  be  fought  through,  not 
nursed  through  ;  and  the  central  problem  is  not  to 
relieve  those  who  fall  by  the  way,  but  to  maintain 
the  fighting  army  in  effectiveness  and  discipline.^ 

1  Charities  Review^  July,  1897,  ^'  G*  Peabody,  "Developing  the 
Up-draught." 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  253 

Here  enters  the  second  principle  of  charity 
reform,  —  that  of  anti-institutionalism.  Institu- 
tions are  almost  necessarily  undiscriminating  in 
method.  They  deal  with  masses  of  poverty 
under  general  rules  of  administration,  and  even  if 
the  mass  be  of  varied  stuff  when  it  enters  the 
institution,  it  is  likely  to  be,  when  it  comes  out, 
of  one  type,  and  that  the  lowest.  The  levelling 
effect  of  institution  life  is  peculiarly  threatening, 
as  we  have  already  noted  in  speaking  of  the 
family,  to  the  character  of  children.  To  throw 
the  infinitely  varied  types  of  childhood,  good  and 
bad,  promising  and  depraved,  into  the  uniformity 
and  homelessness  of  an  institution  is  to  level  the 
best  with  the  worst,  and  to  lessen  in  all  the 
spirit  of  self-control  and  personal  initiative. 
"The  institution  boy,"  said  one  of  the  most  ob- 
servant students  of  child  life,  "makes  the  poorest 
kind  of  apprentice.  He  is  saved  from  becoming 
a  tough  to  become  an  automaton."  ^  A  good 
institution  is,  it  is  true,  better  than  a  bad  home; 
but  while  on  that  account  institutions  must  exist 
for  the  rescue  of  the  degraded,  it  is  precisely  this 
contact  with  the  degraded  which  threatens  the 
morals  of  the  better  type.  Thus,  for  children 
first  of  all,  and  as  far  as  possible  for  all  cases  of 
need,  the  hope  of  permanent  amelioration  of  life 
lies  in  the  escape  from  mass  treatment  and  in  the 
adaptation  of  relief  to  the  individual  case.  The 
right  place  for  a  child  is  in  a  home,  where  he  can 

I  J.  A.  Riis,  "The  Children  of  the  Poor,"  1892,  p.  277. 


254      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

be  dealt  with  as  a  separate  individual ;  and  right 
relations  with  any  home  or  any  life  among  the 
poor  can  be  established  only  as  each  case  is 
approached  as  a  new  problem,  making  a  new  de- 
mand on  the  giver's  insight,  patience,  and  love. 
The  vast  and  costly  experiments  which  have 
been  undertaken  in  wholesale  relief  have  brought 
us  at  last  to  the  most  elementary  principles. 
The  new  charity  proceeds  from  consolidation  to 
individualization.  The  elevation  of  the  poor  is 
not  to  be  accomplished  by  mechanical  devices  of 
legislation  or  organization,  as  though  poverty  were 
a  solid  mass  under  which  social  jack-screws  might 
be  inserted  to  lift  the  whole  ;  it  is  to  be  accom- 
plished only  as  one  life  reaches  down  and  lifts  up 
another  life  by  the  communication  of  strength 
and  the  contagion  of  personality.  Individualiza- 
tion of  relief,  in  other  words,  means  simply  that  a 
busy  man  or  woman  of  the  modern  world  halts, 
lifts,  tends,  cares  for,  and  is  continuously  respon- 
sible for  that  definite  person  who  must  be  cared 
for  or  redeemed.  The  last  word  of  scientific 
poor-relief  is  a  reiteration  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus. 

Why  is  it,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  that  this  natu- 
ral and  Christian  method  of  relief  has  been  so 
largely  supplanted  by  complex  and  vicarious  ar- 
rangements of  charity,  so  that,  instead  of  being 
neighbors  to  a  poor  man,  we  are  subscribers  to  a 
society  for  his  relief  ?  It  is  obviously  because  the 
Christian  ideal  of  social  service  demands  more 


THE  CARE   OF   THE   POOR  2$ 5 

time,  thought,  and  care  than  we  are  for  the  most 
part  either  able  or  inclined  to  give.  To  most  per- 
sons it  appears,  as  it  appeared  to  the  priest  and 
the  Levite,  impracticable  to  interrupt  the  business 
of  life  by  personal  service  of  the  unfortunate.  The 
special  offering  which  is  demanded  —  the  offering 
of  one's  self  —  is  a  gift  which  is  in  many  instances 
already  mortgaged  to  other  duties  ;  and  the  second 
best  contribution  —  that  of  indirect  and  deputed 
help  —  seems  all  that  can  be  made.  For  many 
persons  this  is  a  legitimate  self-defence.  There 
are  circumstances  in  many  lives  where  one  can- 
not be  at  the  same  time  both  a  faithful  steward 
and  a  Good  Samaritan.  This  admission,  however, 
does  not  lessen  the  significance  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  That  teaching  still  enforces  the  truth  that 
vicarious,  official,  institutional  relief,  however  well 
administered,  is  in  its  very  nature  a  substitute  for 
that  which  in  a  perfected  society  would  be  done 
by  individuals  for  individuals  in  the  name  of  Chris- 
tian love.  Impersonal  and  deputed  care,  even  if 
well  designed,  is  but  an  artificial  makeshift  for  per- 
sonal and  continuous  service;  and  the  only  justifi- 
cation of  vast  and  elaborate  arrangements  of  public 
and  private  charity  is  the  proof  that  they  provide 
an  adequate  substitute  for  that  personal  offering 
which  individuals  are  not  prepared  to  make.^ 

1  Compare,  on  this  point,  the  English  and  the  German  theories 
of  poor-relief :  Fowle,  "The  Poor  Law,"  i88i  ;  Aschrott,  "The 
English  Poor  Law  System,"  i888,  and  his  "  Die  Entwicklung  des 
Armenwesens  in  England  seit  dein  Jahre  1885,"  1898  j  Mackay, 


256      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

From  this  principle  of  individualization,  then,  are 
to  be  derived  the  two  corollaries  which  give  to  the 
relief  of  the  poor  its  direction  and  its  discretion. 
In  the  first  place,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  more 
scrupulously  this  substituted  relief  is  disentangled 
from  officialism,  routine,  and  anonymousness,  and 
the  more  directly  it  is  made  an  instrument  of  wise 
and  loving  personality,  the  nearer  it  approaches 
both  to  scientific  charity  and  to  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  The  friendly  visitor  among  the.  poor, 
bringing  neither  patronage,  nor  alms,  nor  self- 
consideration,  nor  religious  propagandism,  but  sun- 
shine, courage,  refinement,  employment,  patience ; 
the  social  settlement  set  in  the  squalor  and  dul- 
ness  of  the  great  city,  not  for  exhortation  or 
condescension,  but  for  sheer  neighborliness ;  the 
beautiful  union  which  is  sometimes  witnessed  of 
official  duty  with  loving  and  personal  care,  —  these 
are  the  finest  products  of  modern  philanthropy. 
We  speak,  in  commercial  language,  of  the  "  plant " 
of  a  modern  enterprise  of  charity,  but  the  plant  of 
charity  grows  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  there 
may  issue  from  it  the  flower  of  personal  devotion. 
We  devote  much  time  to  devising  the  mechanism 
of  charity,  but  that  mechanism   revolves  for  no 

"The  English  Poor,"  1889;  and  "Parliamentary  Report  on  the 
Elberfeld  Poor  Law  System,"  1888  (see  the  evidence  of  C,  S.  Loch, 
p.  88  ff.,  "  We  cannot  have  an  out-relief  policy  in  London  —  the 
German  experience  shows.  We  have  not  citizenship  enough  to 
administer  it ")  ;  Bohmert,  "  Armenwesen  in  77  deutschen  Stadten," 
1886  ;  Miinsterberg,  "  Die  Armenpflege,"  1897  >  Forum^  December, 
1892,  F.  G.  Peabody,  "  How  should  a  City  care  for  its  Poor  ?  " 


THE   CARE   OF   THE   POOR  25/ 

Other  purpose  than  to  communicate  the  power  of 
personal  love. 

The  second  corollary  from  the  principle  of  indi- 
vidualization is  still  more  important.  If  the 
machinery  of  relief  is  to  be  substituted  for  per- 
sonal service,  it  must  be  so  organized  as  to  be  a 
real,  even  if  not  a  perfect,  substitute.  The  only 
excuse  which  can  justify  a  prosperous  life  for 
declining  in  its  own  person  to  undertake  the  part 
of  the  Good  Samaritan  is,  that  it  has  at  its  com- 
mand an  alternative  which  is- likely  to  be  more 
judicious  and  persevering.  When  a  beggar  con- 
fronts a  Christian  in  the  street,  there  are  presented 
to  the  Christian  but  two  alternatives.  Either  he 
must  himself,  with  painstaking  and  continuous  de- 
votion, deal  with  the  case ;  or  else  there  must  be 
already  provided  by  the  community  an  adequate 
substitute  for  his  own  time  and  service.  The 
third  possibility,  — that  of  blank  refusal  of  friendly 
aid,  —  does  not  present  itself  to  the  mind  of  any 
person  who  has  once  heard  the  great  command, 
**From  him  that  would  borrow  of  thee  turn  not 
thou  away."  ^  When  a  pious  giver  refuses  to  dis- 
miss even  the  probably  fraudulent  beggar  without 
relief,  lest  here  and  there  one  worthy  mendicant 
shall  suffer,  that  giver  is  obeying  a  perfectly  legiti- 
mate instinct.  The  Good  Samaritan  asked  no 
questions  of  the  stranger  before  helping  him. 
The  word  of  Jesus,  "Give  to  him  that  asketh 
thee,"  is  a  word  which  modern  science  must  obey 
1  Matt.  V.  42. 
8 


258      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Obedience  to  the  instinct  of  compassion,  however, 
is  not  inconsistent  with  common  sense.  The 
demand  laid  on  one  to  give  does  not  involve 
the  necessity  of  foolish  giving.  Much  time  and 
money  may  be  wisely  spent  in  devising  ways  of 
administration  which  shall  legitimately  relieve  the 
individual  from  the  obligation  of  personal  service. 
The  problem  of  judicious  relief  is  not  to  suppress 
the  instinct  of  benevolence,  but  to  redeem  that  in- 
stinct from  pernicious  employment  in  indiscrimi- 
nate aid ;  and  to  this  end  it  is  absolutely  essential 
that  the  substitutes  for  personal  aid  which  the 
organization  of  charity  may  offer  shall  be  acces- 
sible, discriminating,  sympathetic,  safe,  and  easy 
to  understand. 

By  these  steps  we  are  brought  to  that  method 
in  charity  which  is  most  clearly  indicated  by  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  If,  as  we  liave  seen,  it  is  not 
almsgiving  which  Jesus  primarily  inculcates,  and 
if,  nevertheless,  he  desires  to  establish  a  personal 
relationship  between  giver  and  receiver,  what  is 
the  special  gift  which,  according  to  his  teaching, 
is  to  pass  from  the  strong  to  the  weak  ?  It  is 
the  gift  of  power.  The  life  of  Jesus,  as  it  touches 
the  lives  of  the  degraded,  the  defective,  or  the 
despairing,  communicates  to  them  new  courage, 
hope,  and  self-respect.  Jesus,  when  approached 
by  persons  crying  for  deliverance  from  some  tem- 
porary trouble,  often  leaves  the  trouble  itself  un- 
relieved, in  order  to  reach  some  permanent  and 
underlying  need  which  they  had  never  dared  to 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         259 

think  of  satisfying.  The  blind  beggar^  had  sat, 
it  seems,  daily  on  the  curb  in  Jerusalem,  where 
the  devout  had  tossed  him  their  alms ;  and  the 
beggar  had  come  to  hope  for  nothing  more  than 
that  he  might  receive  more  alms.  Jesus  gives  him 
no  alms,  but  bends  over  him,  anoints  his  eyes,  and 
communicates  the  power  of  sight  for  which  he 
had  not  asked,  so  that  the  man  is  no  more  a 
beggar,  and  the  people  say,  "Is  not  this  he  that 
sat  and  begged  ? "  Other  blind  men  cry  to 
Jesus,  "  Have  mercy  on  us,  thou  son  of  David  "  ;  ^ 
and  again  his  mercy  is  shown,  not  in  pity  alone, 
but  in  the  communication  of  power.  "Believe 
ye,"  he  says,  "that  I  am  able  to  do  this.?"  They 
say  unto  him,  "Yea,  Lord."  And  he  answers, 
"According  to  your  faith  be  it  done  unto  you."^ 
It  is  the  same  with  the  compassion  of  the  follow- 
ers of  Jesus.*  The  gift  of  Paul  to  the  impotent 
man  is  not  of  help  to  the  helpless,  but  of  help 
to  self-help.  "Stand  upright  on  thy  feet,"^  says 
the  apostle,  "and  he  leaped  up  and  walked."  The 
word  of  Peter  to  the  palsied  man  is,  "  Arise, 
and  make  thy  bed."^  With  still  more  accurate 
reiteration  of  their  Master's  intention  Peter  and 
John  meet  the  man  at  the  Beautiful  Gate.  He 
has  been  "laid  daily  at  the  door  of  the  temple,"^ 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  ask  alms  of  those 
that  entered  into  the  temple,  and  seeing  Peter  and 

1  John  ix.  1-12.  *  Acts  ix.  34.  «  Acts  ix.  34. 

*  Matt.  ix.  27.  ^  Acts  xiv,  JO.  ^  Acts  iii.  a. 

•  Matt.  ix.  28,  29. 


260      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

John,  "he  gave  heed  unto  them,  expecting  to 
receive  something  from  them,"  but  Peter  answers  : 
"  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none ;  but  what  I  have, 
that  give  I  thee.  In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Nazareth,  walk."  ^  In  other  words,  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  considers  primarily,  not  a  man's  apparent 
needs,  but  the  man  himself.  The  mind  of  Jesus 
is  ever  on  that  kingdom  which  is  to  come  through 
the  consecration  of  personality.  In  each  case, 
therefore,  the  fundamental  problem  is  that  of  con- 
verting helplessness,  self-distrust,  and  conscious 
incapacity,  into  the  courage,  power,  and  initiative 
of  a  life  contributory  to  the  kingdom.  Rise; 
stand  upon  thy  feet ;  open  thine  eyes ;  walk, — 
such  are  the  great  words  of  Christian  charity. 
The  gift  it  desires  to  impart  is  not  a  temporary 
contribution  of  relief,  but  a  permanent  increase 
of  opportunity  and  capacity.  Christian  charity  is 
not  the  "  Prodigalitas "  of  the  classic  world ;  it  is, 
"Caritas,"  the  love  which,  for  the  sake  of  others 
believeth,  hopeth,  endureth  all  things. 

This  is  a  teaching  most  fruitful  in  its  conse- 
quences for  the  charity  of  every  age.  The  relief 
of  destitution  by  the  provision  of  food  and  shelter 
still  remains  a  duty  of  any  well-ordered  State. 
"Every  society,"  as  a  historian  of  the  English 
Poor  Law  remarks,  "upon  arriving  at  a  certain 
stage  of  civilization,  finds  it  positively  necessary 
for  its  own  sake  ...  to  provide  that  no  person 
.  .  .  shall  perish  for  want  of  the  bare  necessaries 

*  Acts  iii.  5,  6. 


THE   CARE   OF   THE   POOR  26 1 

of  existence."  ^  Such  provision  of  the  necessities 
of  life,  however,  even  when  made  on  the  most 
liberal  terms,  does  not  bring  us  within  the  region 
of  Christian  charity.  It  is  simply  a  political  and 
social  necessity,  insuring  public  peace  and  decency. 
Christian  charity  begins  where  political  prudence 
halts.  Its  task  is  not  that  of  quieting  the  restless 
poor  by  the  anaesthetic  of  relief ;  it  is  the  task  of 
quickening  the  discouraged  life  with  the  stimulant 
of  individualized  love.  Christian  charity  takes 
account  not  merely  of  conditions,  but  of  capacity. 
Its  problem  is  not  that  of  relieving  destitution, 
but  of  developing  possibilities.  Its  aim  is  to  con- 
vert a  shut-in,  stunted,  spiritually  defective  life 
into  a  healthy,  effective,  contributory  factor  of 
the  kingdom. 

Here,  then,  is  the  hierarchy  of  charity.  Essen- 
tial but  most  elementary  is  its  maintenance  of 
physical  life.  Food,  drink,  and  shelter  are  for 
the  poor,  precisely  as  they  are  for  the  prosperous, 
essential  preliminaries  of  a  humanized  life,  but, 
considered  as  ends  of  charity,  they  are  as  inade- 
quate as  when,  in  more  luxurious  forms,  they  are 
regarded  as  ends  of  life  by  the  self-indulgent  and 
ostentatious  rich.  A  rich  man's  life  consisteth  not 
in  the  abundance  of  things  which  he  possesseth, 
and  a  poor  man's  poverty  does  not  consist  wholly 
in  the  lack  of  such  possessions.  Beyond  the  pro- 
vision of  these  necessities  in  the  life  of  the  poor, 
as  in  the  life  of  the  prosperous,  lies  the  demand 

1  Fowle,  "  English  Poor  Law,"  p.  lo. 


262      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

for  the  communication  of  capacity.  The  need  of 
the  poor  man  is  not  bounded  by  relief  under  his 
conditions  ;  he  needs  also  courage  to  better  his 
conditions.  The  aim  of  charity  is  to  give,  not 
only  comfort,  but  power;  not  merely  a  greater 
equality  of  circumstances,  but  a  greater  equality 
of  opportunity.  The  problem  of  the  prosperous, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  is  to  own  one's  wealth 
instead  of  being  owned  by  it,  and  to  make  of 
money  the  instrument  of  social  service ;  and  with 
the  same  end  in  view  charity  should  approach  the 
problem  of  the  poor.  How  can  a  life,  it  asks, 
weak,  ignorant,  and  beset  by  grave  temptations, 
be  endowed  with  self-mastery  and  self-respect,  and 
become  an  instrument  of  the  kingdom  of  God  ? 
Thws,  in  the  hierarchy  of  charity,  above  the  work 
of  the  food-kitchen  and  the  temporary  refuge,  is 
to  be  set  the  elevation  of  the  poor  through  indus- 
try, in  the  farm  and  the  shop ;  through  education, 
in  the  gymnasium  and  the  trade  school ;  through 
the  home,  under  conditions  where  a  home  can  be 
realized ;  through  employment,  such  as  can  be  fairly 
called  a  living ;  through  the  glimpse  of  beauty  and 
the  purifying  of  love.  Much  of  the  charity  most 
in  vogue  even  among  Christian  churches  is  but 
slightly  in  accord  with  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It 
does  not,  indeed,  give  stones  when  asked  for 
bread;  but  it  gives  bread  when  asked  for  hope, 
power,  pleasure,  life.  Man  lives  indeed  by  bread, 
but  not  by  bread  alone.  It  is  no  just  appreciation 
of  the  poor  which  leads  one  to  imagine  that  they 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         263 

want  most  of  all  to  be  fed.  They  want,  precisely 
as  the  prosperous  want,  that  life  which  is  more 
than  meat,  —  the  sense  of  capacity,  of  joy,  of 
hope ;  and  of  all  the  sources  of  their  degradation 
the  most  perilous  is  the  loss  of  their  courage  and 
faith.  **The  highest  ambition  of  the  beneficent," 
said  Mr.  Spencer,  unconscious  perhaps  that  he  was 
reiterating  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  "will  be  to  have 
a  share — even  though  an  utterly  unappreciable 
and  unknown  share —  in  the  making  of  man."^ 

How  is  it  then,  one  may  finally  ask,  that  this 
quality  of  power  is  communicated  ?  It  is  communi- 
cated, answers  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  not  chiefly 
by  legislation  or  by  organization,  but  by  contagion. 
It  is  not  a  mechanical,  but  a  vital,  force.  The 
power  of  Jesus  and  his  disciples  to  be  obeyed 
when  they  say,  "Rise,  stand  upright,  walk," 
proceeds  from  the  contagious  quality  of  the  good 
life.  And  why  is  our  poor-relief,  even  when  con- 
scientious and  scientific,  so  often  without  this 
communicative  power  .^  It  is  because  we  are  not, 
as  a  rule,  good  enough  to  do  much  good.  A 
stream  cannot  satisfy  thirst  if  its  springs  are  dry. 
The  best  intention  to  lift  the  poor  must  fail  if 
there  is  no  lifting  power  to  apply.  The  poor  can 
not  be  pushed  up,  they  must  be  drawn  up.  "  I, 
if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,"  said  the  Master, 
"will  draw  all  men  unto  myself." ^  The  lifting 
force  of  social  life  is  not  compulsion,  but,  like  that 
of  the  planetary  world,  attraction.     "If  I  bestow 

1  "  Principles  of  Ethics,"  II,  433.  2  John  xii.  32. 


264      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

all  my  goods,"  says  the  apostle,  "  to  feed  the  poor, 
.  .  .  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing."* 
Indeed,  the  goods  thus  bestowed  are  likely  to  be 
SO  foolishly  bestowed  as  to  profit  the  poor  also 
nothing.  In  short,  the  problem  of  being  good 
and  that  of  doing  good  are  not  two  problems,  but 
one ;  and  many  a  disheartening  experiment  in 
well-intentioned  charity  forces  a  community  or 
an  individual  to  a  reexamination  of  their  own 
hearts. 

What,  then,  is  Christian  charity  ?  It  is  certainly 
not  that  haphazard  and  ostentatious  giving  which 
is  seen  of  men  and  has  its  own  reward  of  praise 
and  self-esteem ;  nor  is  it  a  prodigal  giving  for 
distant  needs,  atoning  for  neglect  in  one's  own 
immediate  cares ;  nor  is  it  emotional  compassion 
posing  as  more  pious  than  intelligent  method. 
Christian  charity  is,  first  of  all,  rational,  prudent 
and  wise.  It  surveys  its  problem  from  above, 
with  detachment,  perspective  and  horizon.  It 
begins  with  its  nearest  duties  of  business  and 
of  home.  It  satisfies  itself,  not  by  offering  tem- 
porary relief,  but  by  the  permanent  elevation  of 
the  level  of  desires.  It  is  educative,  disciplinary, 
comprehensive,  just.  Christian  charity,  therefore, 
deals  primarily  with  the  individual.  It  may  em- 
ploy large  methods,  but  it  is  not  lost  in  them.  It 
seeks  the  one  sheep  that  is  lost.  Its  aim  is  not 
the  perfecting  of  a  system,  but  the  saving  of  a 
soul.     It  looks  behind  conditions  for  the   person 

1  I  Cor.  xiii.  3. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR         26$ 

who  is  ensnared  in  them.  It  expects,  not  to  make 
the  world  soft,  but  to  make  characters  strong 
enough  to  live  in  a  hard  world.  It  judges  all 
undertakings  of  poor-relief  by  their  contribution 
to  virility,  initiative,  and  self-help.  Its  care  is 
devoted,  not  to  providing  crutches  for  the  weak, 
but  to  providing  ways  in  which  the  weak  shall 
be  able  to  obey  the  command,  "Rise  up,  stand 
upon  thy  feet,  walk."  Finally,  Christian  charity 
finds  its  instrument  for  this  educative  and  per- 
manent relief  in  the  communicative  power  of 
Christian  personality.  "Only  he  who  has,"  said 
Emerson,  "  can  give,  he  on  whom  the  Soul  de- 
scends alone  can  speak."  The  complex  mechan- 
ism of  modern  charity  is  but  a  medium  through 
which  works  with  security  and  effectiveness  the 
power  of  a  good  life.  The  mechanism  of  charity 
is  economic;  its  motive  power  is  spiritual.  The 
science  of  charity  is  a  work  of  organization,  the 
sentiment  of  charity  is  a  work  of  contagion.  The 
first  step  toward  doing  good  is  in  being  good. 
The  elevation  of  the  poor  is  retarded  by  many 
faults  of  social  mechanism,  but  it  is  much  more 
retarded  by  ignorance,  impatience,  self-regard  and 
injustice,  in  those  who  help  the  poor;  and  one  of 
the  keenest  joys  of  human  life  is  felt  by  those 
who,  dismissing  great  schemes  of  social  improve- 
ment, give  themselves  to  the  patient  service  of  a 
few  discouraged  lives,  and  discover  that  power 
may  be  communicated  to  those  lives  and  may 
lift   them   into   self-respect  and  hope.     To  these 


266      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

self-effacing  servants  of  the  common  good  Jesus 
spoke  his  most  unmeasured  praise :  "  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  pre- 
pared for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world : 
Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these  my  breth- 
ren, even  these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  me."  ^ 
^  Matt  XXV.  34, 40. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  TEACHING  OF   JESUS   CONCERNING  THE   INDUS- 
TRIAL  ORDER 

Zijt  i^on  of  man  catiu  not  to  iie  ministertU  unto  but  to  minister* 

In  all  that  has  been  thus  far  said  of  various 
social  questions  there  has  been  a  sense  of  incom- 
pleteness and  fragmentariness,  as  though  in  each 
case  we  were  dealing  with  one  aspect  of  a  more 
inclusive  problem.  The  problem  of  the  family 
expanded  as  it  was  considered,  until  it  was  seen 
to  involve  further  issues  of  economic  and  social 
life;  the  problems  of  wealth  and  of  poverty  opened 
into  larger  questions  of  ownership  and  occupation, 
of  work  and  idleness,  of  the  distribution  of  prod- 
ucts and  the  utilization  of  leisure.  Wealth,  we 
observed,  should  contribute,  first  of  all,  to  eco- 
nomic justice;  charity  must  provide,  first  of  all, 
for  economic  self-help.  Round  these  inner  circles 
of  social  relationship  which  hold  the  family  and 
the  community  sweeps  the  larger  circle  of  the 
industrial  order.  If  we  extend  the  radius  of  the 
family  circle,  we  enter  the  sphere  where  men 
meet  as  employers  and  employed.  If  we  follow 
the  circumstances  of  wealth  and  poverty  out  to 
their  margin,  we  pass  into  consideration  of  the 
use,  or  the  misuse,  or  the  incapacity  to   make 

267 


268      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

use,  of  industrial  opportunity.  The  philosophy  of 
socialism,  it  is  true,  grossly  exaggerates  this  truth 
when  it  announces  that  this  relation  of  concentric 
circles  is  a  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  as  though 
the  key  of  every  social  question  must  be  sought  in 
the  industrial  problem.  The  family  is  more  than 
an  economic  unity,  and  is  modified  by  other  mo- 
tives than  those  of  economic  interest ;  wealth  and 
poverty  spring  from  many  other  causes  besides 
industrial  conditions.  Yet  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  the  industrial  question  environs  like  an  at- 
mosphere the  whole  body  of  social  life.  The 
integrity  of  the  family  is  profoundly  affected  by 
economic  changes  and  defects  ;  wealth  and  poverty 
are  inevitable  social  facts  under  the  prevailing  con- 
ditions of  ownership  and  of  industry. 

What,  then,  is  this  industrial  problem  in  which 
all  other  social  questions  are  thus  deeply  involved  ? 
The  problem  has  two  aspects.  On  the  one  hand 
is  the  form  which  it  assumes,  on  the  other  hand  is 
the  spirit  which  it  represents.  These  two  aspects 
of  modern  industry  must  be  carefully  distinguished 
and  may  be  considered  in  turn. 

The  form  of  the  industrial  problem  has  become 
determined  by  the  amazing  expansion  of  modern 
industrial  methods,  the  vast  combinations  of  em- 
ployers and  of  employed,  and  the  enormous  prizes 
which  reward  strategy  or  good  fortune.  These 
characteristics  of  modern  industry  have  brought 
the  factors  of  industry  to  a  situation  which  appears 
not  unlike  a  state  of  war.    The  forces  of  production 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  269 

are  maintained  on  a  war  footing.  The  modern  "cap- 
tain of  industry  "  is  of  the  same  stuff  which  makes 
great  generals.  He  is  a  farsighted,  determined 
leader  of  men,  with  his  mind  fixed  on  a  single  end, 
and  with  an  industrial  army  at  his  command. 
Over  against  him  are  many  opposing  forces,  —  the 
force  of  his  immediate  competitors  in  business,  the 
remoter  hostility  of  competing  nations,  and,  more 
than  all,  the  spirit  of  industrial  disaffection  stir- 
ring in  his  own  troops  and  inciting  to  mutiny.  More 
and  more  the  industrial  world  finds  itself  occupied 
by  two  armed  camps,  —  the  force  of  the  employed 
combined  to  meet  what  seem  the  aggressions  of 
the  employers,  and  the  force  of  the  employers 
combined  to  resist  what  seem  the  unreasonable 
demands  of  the  employed.  Strikes  and  lock-outs 
are  temporary  raids  across  the  enemy's  frontier ; 
organization  on  both  sides  disciplines  and  drills 
the  contending  armies  ;  industrial  arbitration,  like 
international  arbitration,  offers  itself  as  a  last 
substitute  for  battle  ;  while,  hanging  on  to  the 
skirts  of  the  two  forces,  threatening  the  employers 
with  violence,  and  weakening  by  its  competition 
the  power  of  the  employed,  is  that  unorganized 
and  shifting  mass  which  we  call  the  army  of  the 
unemployed.  Even  international  diplomacy  is 
now  concerned  quite  as  much  with  questions  of 
industrial  warfare  as  with  political  issues,  and 
the  treaties,  the  competitions,  and  the  territorial 
expansion  of  nations  have  become  more  and  more 
the  weapons  of  the  warfare  of  trade. 


2/0     JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

If  this  is  a  true  picture  of  the  competitions  of 
industry,  then  the  present  form  of  the  industrial 
question  becomes  plain.  It  is  a  question  of  ade- 
quate substitutes  for  economic  war.  It  is  the  prob- 
lem of  industrial  peace.  This  peace  may  be  sought 
in  many  ways.  Sometimes  it  is  temporarily  se- 
cured by  the  sheer  superior  force  of  one  party  in  the 
conflict.  Such  peace,  however,  in  industrial,  as  in 
political  life,  is  unstable  and  disturbed.  The  force 
that  has  been  crushed  waits  for  its  occasion  to 
renew  resistance.  Industrial  slavery,  like  political 
slavery,  prophesies  revolution.  Again,  industrial 
peace  is  sought  by  retreating  from  the  field  of 
industrial  conflict  into  the  uncompetitive  tranquil- 
lity of  some  communistic  society,  as  pious  souls  in 
other  days  retreated  from  the  conflicts  of  the  world 
to  the  monastic  life.  Such  peace,  however,  is 
even  at  its  best  for  the  few  only.  The  hurrying 
world  of  modern  industry  passes  by  these  under- 
takings, as  a  railway  train  in  Italy  sweeps  by 
some  lingering  monastery  on  its  secluded  height. 
Sometimes,  again,  industrial  peace  is  actually 
established  within  a  limited  circle,  as  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  mutual  interest  for  commercial  an- 
tagonism in  the  cooperative  system.  Finally,  such 
peace  is  sometimes  dreamed  of  as  universal  and 
permanent,  within  a  cooperative  commonwealth 
of  common  ownership  and  industrial  democracy. 
All  such  schemes  and  dreams  assume  that  the 
present  war  footing  of  industry,  Hke  that  of  nations, 
is  both  extravagant  and  unnecessary ;  all  are  wit- 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  2/1 

nesses  of  a  widespread  desire  for  industrial  dis- 
armament. The  labor  movement  of  the  present 
day  is  in  its  form  an  industrial  peace-crusade. 

It  may  be  urged,  indeed,  that  to  picture  the  field 
of  economic  activity  as  a  battle-field  is  grossly 
to  misconceive  the  nature  of  modern  industry. 
Employers  and  employed,  it*  may  be  pointed  out, 
are  in  reality,  not  hostile  forces,  but  allies  and 
partners  in  production.  They  prosper  or  suffer 
in  the  end  together,  and  to  assume  a  discord  be- 
tween their  interests  is  not  only  unjustified,  but 
suicidal.  Is  it  not,  it  may  be  asked,  a  strange 
form  of  peace-movement  which  begins  by  exagger- 
ating the  antagonisms  of  industry,  and  proposes  as 
its  end  a  social  revolution  which  shall  completely 
abolish  the  capitalist  class  ?  These  are  reasonable 
criticisms.  There  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of/ 
industrial  life  even  under  present  social  conditions 
which  necessarily  involves  it  in  war,  or  which 
forbids  the  most  idyllic  relation  of  mutual  confi- 
dence and  affection.  Here  and  there  such  a  rela- 
tion in  industry  actually  exists,  and  instead  of  a 
state  of  war  we  have  an  "  industrial  partnership," 
or  an  *^ Institution  patronaley'  or  a  "Famille  oil- 
vri^reT  Such  an  admission,  however,  only  brings 
more  clearly  before  us  the  real  nature  of  the  pre- 
vailing industrial  warfare.  It  is  not  an  antago-\ 
nism  which  is  inherent  in  economic  life.  In  fact,  it\ 
is  at  bottom  not  an  economic  antagonism  at  all. 
Like  most  declarations  of  war  it  proceeds,  as  a 
rule,  from   unanticipated  and    emotional   causes. 


2^2      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

The  industrial  conflict  of  the  present  day  is  simply 
the  form  assumed  by  that  profound  sense  of  moral 
distrust  which  is  stirring  in  the  hearts  of  the  hand- 
working  class,  and  expressing  itself  in  a  passionate 
demand  for  industrial  justice. 

At  this  point  we  observe  the  second  aspect  of 
the  industrial  question.  Its  form  is  determined 
by  economic  conditions,  but  its  spirit  expresses  a 
moral  protest.  Fifty  years  ago  the  great  body 
of  hand-workers  were  ignorant  and  unobservant ; 
now  they  have  eaten  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  and  their  eyes  are  opened.  They  look 
about  them  at  the  prodigious  productiveness  of 
modern  industry,  and  it  seems  plain  to  them  that 
the  division  of  profits  is  unjust.  That  which  in- 
cites them  to  revolt  is  not  that  they  earn  less  than 
before,  but  that  they  know  more  than  before,  and 
feel  and  desire  infinitely  more.  That  which  makes 
them  dissatisfied  is  not  that  their  economic  condi- 
tion grows  worse,  but  that  their  emotional  and 
intellectual  life  is  wakened  and  demands  new 
satisfactions.  They  observe  that  in  the  general 
progress  of  economic  prosperity  the  relative  gain 
which  falls  to  them  seems  slight  when  compared 
with  the  enormous  accumulations  of  superfluous 
wealth  which  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  few. 
Thus  they  find  themselves  the  agents  in  produc- 
ing wealth  of  which  they  obtain  but  an  insignifi- 
cant share,  and  they  cry  out  with  passionate 
indignation  as  against  a  grievous  wrong.  No  one 
gets  any  just   impression  of  what  is  called  the 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  2/3 

labor  movement  who  does  not  thus  recognize  the 
interior  spirit  which  expresses  itself  in  these  de- 
mands for  industrial  change.  The  economic 
programme  proposed  by  an  agitator  may  be  so 
demonstrably  speculative  or  Utopian  that  one 
can  hardly  imagine  it  as  commanding  the  loyalty 
and  self-sacrifice  of  plain  and  practical  minds ; 
but  that  which  sustains  the  programme  is  the 
emotion  to  which  it  gives  a  form.  Many  a  mis- 
directed and  indefensible  enterprise  becomes  sig- 
nificant when  one  hears  the  ethical  undertone 
which  it  is  trying  to  express.  Beneath  the  tossing 
and  conflicting  waves  thrown  up  upon  its  surface 
are  the  profounder  movements  of  emotion  which 
rise  like  great  rollers  out  of  its  depths. 

Here,  then,  are  the  two  aspects  of  the  industrial 
problem — its  economic  form  and  its  ethical  spirit; 
its  form,  a  search  for  industrial  peace ;  its  spirit, 
a  demand  for  industrial  justice.  What,  then,  we 
go  on  to  inquire,  has  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  do 
with  these  things  ^  Has  he  any  instructions  to 
give  concerning  the  form  of  the  industrial  order  ? 
Has  he  any  suggestions  to  offer  concerning  the 
spirit  of  industrial  life  ? 

f  To  the  first  of  these  questions  a  general  answer 
may  be  given  without  delay.  It  is  impossible  t  > 
imagine  that  any  specific  instructions  concerning 
the  form  of  modern  industry  shall  be  derivfid 
from  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  social  horizon 
of  that  teaching  was  as  remote  from  the  prob- 
lems of  modern  industrial  life  as  though  it  were 


2/4      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

in  another  planet.  To  turn  to  Jesus  for  categor- 
ical instruction  concerning  industrial  organiza- 
tion, individual  initiative,  or  social  control,  is  as 
preposterous  as  to  inquire  into  his  views  con- 
cerning modern  inventions  or  modern  politics.^ 
Such  phrases  as  Christian  economics,  in  the  sense 
of  organizing  modern  life  under  the  direct  regula- 
tion of  Jesus,  or  Christian  sociology,  as  a  science 
of  modern  society  directly  defined  by  Jesus,  or 
Christian  socialism,  as  a  form  of  government 
prescribed  by  Jesus,  are  as  much  without  justi- 
fication in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  it  would  be 
to  speak  of  Christian  astronomy  or  of  Christian 
science. 

To  the  obvious  fact  that  Jesus  could  not  have 
given  specific  legislation  for  a  social  situation 
which  was  undreamt  of  in  his  day,  there  must  be 
added  the  fact  that  he  for  the  most  part  declined 
to  give  such  legislation  even  for  those  social 
problems  which  were  actually  brought  before 
him  for  judgment.  The  Pharisees  take  counsel 
"how  they  might  ensnare  him  in  his  talk,"* 
and  bring  to  him  the  question  of  tribute.  Does 
he  teach  submission  to  Rome,  or  is  he  a  politi- 
cal revolutionist  ?    Jesus,  however,  perceives  their 

1  H.  Holtzmann,  "  Die  ersten  Christen  und  die  soziale  Frage," 
s.  21,  "To  speak  of  the  economics  of  the  New  Testament  is,  in  my 
opinion,  as  impossible  as  to  speak  of  its  dietetics  (Acts  xv.  20,  29), 
its  hermeneutics  (I.  Cor.  ix.  9,  10),  its  astronomy  (Matt.  ii.  9,  24, 
29),  or  its  meteorology  (Matt.  xvi.  2,  3  ;   Luke  xii.  54,  55). 

2  Matt.  xxii.  15  ;  Mark  xii.  13  ;  Luke  xx.  20. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  2/5 

craftiness,  and  dismissing  their  specific  question, 
solemnly  announces  to  them  his  higher  law.  You 
show  me,  he  says,  this  coin  with  the  image  of 
Caesar  on  it,  the  symbol  of  your  obedience  to  him ; 
but  show  me  also  whether  there  is  stamped  upon 
your  hearts  the  mark  of  an  equal  loyalty  to  God. 
At  another  time  Peter  brings  to  him  the  social 
question  of  the  temple  tax.^  Are  the  followers  of 
Jesus  ecclesiastical  reformers  who  are  to  consider 
themselves  free  from  the  Mosaic  law.^  Again 
Jesus  refuses  to  be  entangled  in  such  a  question. 
He  and  his  friends,  he  says,  are  like  the  sons  of 
kings,  who  are  free  from  the  obligation  of  tribute, 
but  whose  freedom  from  such  obligation  makes 
tribute  no  burden.  Let  us  not  lower  ourselves, 
he  teaches  them,  to  such  a  controversy,  but  let  us 
discharge  ourselves  of  non-essentials  so  as  to  cause 
none  to  stumble,  and  then  use  our  freedom  for 
the  work  of  the  king's  sons.  Still  again,  there  is 
brought  to  him  the  problem  of  the  distribution  of 
property.  "Master,"  says  one,  "bid  my  brother 
divide  the  inheritance  with  me  ; "  ^  and,  as  before, 
Jesus  first  refuses  to  deal  with  the  question  as 
though  he  were  a  social  reformer,  and  then  pro- 
ceeds to  translate  the  question  of  inheritance  into 
a  question  of  the  spiritual  life.  "Man,"  he  first 
sternly  answers,  "who  made  me  a  judge  or  a 
divider  over  you } "  and  then,  looking  about  him 
at  the  listeners  eagerly  awaiting  his  views  on  the 
distribution  of  property,  he  passes  from  the  ques- 

1  Matt.  xvii.  25.  2  Luke  xii.  13-15;  compare  Ex.  ii.  14. 


2*j6      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE  SOCIAL    QUESTION 

tion  which  had  been  asked  him  to  the  motive 
which  prompted  the  question.  "Take  heed,"  he 
says,  "and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covetousness." 
"  A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of 
the  things  which  he  possesseth."  Finally,  and 
with  still  greater  candor,  Jesus,  at  the  close  of  his 
life,  declines  jurisdiction  in  social  and  political 
affairs.^  The  authority  which  he  claims  for  him- 
self is  not  that  of  a  ruler,  but  that  of  a  revealer. 
"  My  kingdom,"  he  says  to  Pilate,  "  is  not  of  this 
world."  "Now  is  my  kingdom  not  from  hence." 
"  To  this  end  am  I  come  into  the  world,  that  I 
should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth."  These  sol- 
emn affirmations  completely  distinguish  the  mis- 
sion of  Jesus  from  that  of  a  social  legislator  or 
revolutionist.  No  specific  form  of  industrial  ar- 
rangement can  fairly  claim  to  reproduce  a  design 
prescribed  by  him. 

Yet  it  by  no  means  follows  from  this  conclusion 
that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  has  no  bearing  on 
modern  industrial  life.  On  the  contrary,  when 
one  recalls  the  social  principles  of  the  gospel,  they 
are  at  once  seen  to  involve  decisions  concern- 
ing many  economic  schemes  of  the  present  day. 
Jesus,  in  the  first  place,  surveys  industrial  life,  as 
he  does  all  other  human  interests,  from  above,  as 
a  means  to  that  spiritual  education  of  the  race 
which  is  to  have  its  end  in  God's  kingdom.  The 
world  of  business  affairs  is  to  Jesus  not  an  isolated 
sphere  of  human   activity,  for  it  lies  within  the 

1  John  xviii.  36,  37. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  2^7 

large  horizon  of  his  spiritual  purpose.  This  point 
of  view,  however,  involves  two  judgments  concern- 
ing industrial  life,  which  at  first  sight  appear  to 
be  not  wholly  consistent.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
view  from  above  removes  Jesus  from  all  primary 
concern  with  questions  of  economic  profit  or  loss. 
His  teaching  concerning  industrial  life  is  moved  by 
a  great  desire  to  direct  the  forces  of  ambition  and 
emulation  away  from  economic  satisfactions  toward 
spiritual  ends.  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves,"  he 
says,  "treasures  upon  the  earth,  .  .  .  but  lay  up 
for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven."^  "Be  not 
therefore  anxious  for  the  morrow : "  "  Seek  ye  first 
his  kingdom  and  his  righteousness."  ^  The  rich 
man,  according  to  Jesus,  says  to  his  soul,  "  Soul, 
thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years ; " 
but  God  answers  him,  "Thou  foolish  one,  that 
layest  up  treasure  for  himself,  and  is  not  rich 
toward  God."  ^  On  the  other  hand,  this  distinct 
subordination  of  economic  interests  and  gains 
does  not  carry  with  it,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  a 
note  of  asceticism.  Over  against  his  assurance 
that  the  "  true  riches  "  are  not  mere  products  of 
industry  must  be  set  the  no  less  obvious  fact  that 
he  moves  with  sympathy  and  appreciation  through 
the  world  of  industrial  activity,  and  finds  in  it,  not 
material  for  censure,  but  for  example  and  praise. 
The  sower  in  the  field,*  the  shepherd  with  his 
fiock,^  the  merchant   buying    pearls,^   the   fisher 

1  Matt.  vi.  19,  20.        *  Luke  xii.  19-21.        ^  John  x.  2-5. 

*  Matt.  vi.  33.  *  Matt.  xiii.  3-8.  «  Matt.  xiii.  45,  46. 


2/8      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

casting  his  net,^  the  laborer  waiting  to  be  hired,' 
the  householder  digging  his  winepress,^  even 
the  tax-gatherer*  and  the  soldier^  doing  the 
duty  assigned  to  them,  —  these  are  not  types  of 
conduct  to  which  Jesus  alludes  in  words  of  admo- 
nition or  regret,  but  are,  on  the  contrary,  types 
which  he  naturally  utilizes  as  texts  of  his  dis- 
course. The  persons  whom  he  most  sternly  re- 
bukes are  not  those  who  are  deeply  absorbed  in 
the  world  of  work ;  they  are  those  who,  having 
work  given  them  to  do,  shirk  it  or  leave  it  half 
done.  The  servant  who  trades  with  his  master's 
talents^  is  commended ;  but  the  rebuke  of  Jesus  is 
for  him  who  did  not  put  his  money  at  the  banker's, 
whence  he  might  have  received  his  own  with  in- 
terest. The  praise  of  Jesus  is  for  the  shepherd 
who  scours  the  hillside  to  find  the  one  missing 
sheep  ;^  for  the  scrupulous  housekeeper  who  lights 
her  lamp  and  diligently  sweeps  her  house  until  she 
finds  the  one  lost  coin.^  Jesus,  that  is  to  say, 
while  announcing  that  the  real  treasure  is  in 
heaven,  and  while  describing  the  man  who  looks 
for  it  on  earth  as  a  fool,  none  the  less  repeatedly 
teaches  that  scrupulous  fidelity  in  one's  daily  busi- 
ness commands  the  commendation  of  God.  "If 
therefore  ye  have  not  been  faithful  in  the  unright- 
eous mammon,  who  will  commit  to  your  trust  the 
true  riches  ? "  ^ 

1  Matt.  xiii.  47,  48.        *  Matt.  ix.  9.  "^  Luke  xv.  4-6. 

«  Matt.  XX.  6.  »  Matt.  viii.  5-13.  «  Luke  xv.  8,  9. 

•  Matt.  xxi.  33.  •  Matt.  xxv.  16,  17.         •  Luke  xvi.  ll. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  2^9 

Is  there  an  inconsistency  between  these  two 
aspects  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  —  its  subordina- 
tion of  industrial  results  and  its  commendation  of 
industrial  fidelity?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  pre- 
cisely the  union  of  these  traits  which  marks  the 
Christian  view  of  industrial  life.  The  Christian 
moves  through  his  experience  in  the  world  as  the 
judicious  traveller  passes  through  an  interesting 
country.  Such  a  traveller  does  not  permit  himself 
to  be  altogether  absorbed  in  the  routine  or  discom- 
fort or  mechanism  of  his  journey,  but  recognizes 
the  resources  and  charms  which  disclose  them- 
selves along  his  way.  He  finds  delight  in  inci- 
dents which  to  many  would  be  irksome.  He  deals 
cheerfully  with  the  details  of  travel  for  the  sake  of 
those  ends  of  travel  which  he  desires  to  attain. 
He  is  laying  up  treasure  which  cannot  be  lost,  and 
where  his  treasure  is  there  his  heart  is  also.  It' 
is  this  problem  of  uniting  alertness  with  repose, 
devotion  to  details  with  perception  of  an  end 
beyond  details,  which,  for  great  numbers  of  per- 
sons, represents  the  personal  aspect  of  the  in- 
dustrial question.  How  to  combine  delight  in 
work  with  deliverance  from  the  despotism  of  work 
is  to  many  an  unsolved  problem.  If  they  give 
their  hearts  to  industrial  activity  they  become  its 
slaves;  and  if  they  give  their  hearts  to  spiritual 
interests,  then  they  become  unprofitable  servants 
in  the  world  of  work.  How  is  it,  then,  that  peace 
of  mind  and  a  sense  of  unity  are  to  be  attained  in 
these  divided  and  discordant  lives.?     They  are  to 


280      JESUS  CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

issue,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  from  the 
discovery  of  spiritual  significance  in  that  work 
which  one  is  called  to  do,  and  this  discovery  is 
made  when  one  looks  at  his  experience  from 
above.  The  religious  point  of  view  is  not  one 
which  distracts  the  mind  from  its  work,  but  one 
which  gives  the  mind  insight  into  its  work.  The 
world  of  industry  abounds  in  resources  and  satis- 
factions, well  worth  attaining  at  the  cost  of  much 
dull  routine  along  the  way,  and  the  larger  end  jus- 
tifies the  painstaking  fidelity.  Details  which  might 
seem  irksome  when  viewed  from  below,  become 
dignified  and  honorable  when  viewed  from  above. 
The  man  who  trudges  through  his  work  without  a 
thought  beyond  his  dusty  road,  and  the  man  who 
will  not  go  that  way  at  all  because  the  road  is 
dusty,  equally  miss  the  lesson  of  industrial  life. 
The  view  of  that  life  from  above  finds  a  place  for 
its  activity  and  fidelity  within  the  horizon  of  a 
Christian  ideal.  The  Christian  is  faithful  in  that 
which  is  least,  and  through  that  fidelity  enters  into 
the  joy  of  that  which  is  much. 

To  the  doctrine  of  horizon  as  applied  to  indus- 
trial affairs  must  be  added  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  industrial  progress.  Jesus  not  only  surveys  the 
world  of  business  from  above,  but  approaches  it 
from  within.  His  method  begins  with  the  indi- 
vidual. His  supreme  intention  is  that  of  making 
persons  who  shall  in  their  turn  make  the  kingdom 
sof  God.  Here,  then,  is  a  test  to  be  applied  to 
any  form  of  industrial  life.     Instead  of  estiaiating 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  28 1 

the  economic  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  a  form 
of  industry,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  weighs  it  as  a 
contribution  to  character.  Of  any  industrial  pro- 
gramme or  proposition  Jesus  asks,  not  whether  it 
will  pay,  or  will  be  extravagant,  or  difficult  to 
administer;  but  rather,  what  sort  of  people  will 
it  be  likely  to  produce.  In  the  making  of  goods 
will  it  make  good  characters ;  or,  while  making 
cheap  products,  will  it  also  make  cheap  men  ? 
This  is  a  point  of  view  from  which  any  commercial 
system  may  be  fairly  considered.  We  may  apply 
the  test,  for  example,  to  the  industrial  order  now 
prevailing,  and  we  have  already  observed  one  type 
of  character  developed  by  such  a  system  —  the 
character  of  the  alert,  audacious,  commanding 
personality,  the  "captain  of  industry,"  the  Napo- 
leon of  finance.  These  are  qualities  worth  produc- 
ing. No  new  economic  arrangement  can  perma- 
nently supplant  the  present  industrial  order  unless 
it  tends  to  produce  an  equally  virile  and  forcible 
type  of  man.  At  this  point,  however,  a  new  series 
of  questions  begins.  Are  these  qualities  of  leader- 
ship, it  is  asked,  the  finest  moral  product  of  which 
the  present  order  of  industry  is  capable  ?  If  this 
is  true,  is  it  not  possible  that  a  better  arrangement 
of  economic  life  might  produce  a  more  generous 
and  noble  type.?  When,  still  further,  we  pass 
from  the  character  of  the  captains  of  industry  to 
that  of  the  privates  in  the  industrial  army,  what, 
under  our  present  commercial  system,  do  we  find 
to  be  the  normal  product  of  moral  virility }     Does 


oa 


^ 


282      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

the  method  of  the  great  industry  tend  to  develop 
initiative,  intelligence,  and  versatility  in  the  great 
mass  of  subordinates,  or  does  it  rather  develop  a 
stunted,  dehumanized,  mechanical  type?  Is  it 
true  that  the  private  in  the  great  factory,  as  in  a 
fighting  army,  is  often  the  better  soldier  when  he 
is  no  longer  a  free  person,  but  more  completely  a 
part  of  the  machine  ?  Questions  like  these  make 
the  burden  of  that  social  complaint  which  ex- 
presses itself  in  what  we  call  the  labor  movement. 
Unreasonable  and  misdirected  many  of  these  in- 
dustrial demands  may  be,  yet  they  utter  a  cry 
from  the  ranks  of  industry  for  a  more  human,  free, 
and  reasonable  life.  They  are  the  passionate 
writhings  of  suppressed  and  defeated  personality, 
buried  under  the  mountain  of  overwhelming  rou- 
tine, as  the  struggling  Enceladus  lay  beneath  the 
heaving  JEtna,.  The  pathos  and  the  dignity  of  the 
labor  movement  is  to  be  found  in  this  reiteration 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  that  economic  schemes 
are  to  be  estimated  by  their  contribution  to  per- 
sonality. The  economic  order  is  an  instrument 
for  the  making  of  men  ;  and  a  struggle  which,  like 
the  present  labor  movement,  brings  forth,  even 
through  much  travail,  more  thoughtful  and  loyal 
men,  is  the  birth  struggle  of  a  better  social  world. 
This  principle  of  Jesus  which  subordinates  profit 
to  personality  may  be  applied  as  a  test  of  any  in- 
dustrial scheme.  Indeed,  the  principle  sometimes 
interprets  industrial  movements  whose  economic 
success  would  be  on  other  grounds  inexplicable. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  283 

An  interesting  illustration  of  this  truth  is  provided 
by  the  cooperative  system  of  Great  Britain.  It  is 
a  movement  which  has  had  a  most  chequered  his- 
tory of  economic  success  and  economic  failure. 
Under  some  conditions  the  extraordinary  expan- 
sion of  the  cooperative  system  would  lead  one  to 
conclude  that  those  plain  weavers  of  Rochdale 
had  discovered  a  panacea  for  economic  ills ;  under 
other  conditions,  apparently  not  less  favorable, 
cooperation  has  met  with  immediate  disaster. 
What  is  it  which  makes  the  cooperative  plan  at 
one  point  so  fruitful  and  at  another  point  so  barren 
in  its  results  ?  It  is  the  fact  that  the  system  is 
not  merely  an  economic  device,  but  much  more 
fundamentally  a  moral  movement.  Cooperation 
depends  for  its  success,  not  only  on  its  commercial 
principles  of  cash  payment  and  deferred  benefit,  but 
on  the  moral  qualities  of  patience,  thrift,  and  loyalty, 
which  make  that  character  known  as  the  **  cooper- 
ative man."  "The  cardinal  doctrines  of  its  faith," 
said  Professor  Marshall  at  the  Cooperative  Con- 
gress of  1889,  **are  .  .  .  firstly,  the  production  of 
fine  human  beings,  and  not  the  production  of  rich 
goods,  as  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  worthy  endeavor. 
Secondly,  he  who  lives  and  works  only  for  himself, 
or  even  only  for  himself  and  his  family,  leads  an 
incomplete  life ;  to  complete  it  he  needs  to  work 
with  others  for  some  broad  and  high  aim."  ^  The 
achievements  of  the  cooperative  system  in  Great 
Britain  are  moral  victories.  Millions  of  plain  peo- 
1  A.  Marshall,  "Inaugural  Address  at  Ipswich,"  1889,  p.  2, 


284      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

pie  have  been  trained  in  the  instincts  of  coopera- 
tive life,  and  the  industrial  profits  have  been  the 
natural  results  of  the  cooperative  sentiment.  Yet 
this  ethical  quality  of  the  cooperative  system  is  at 
the  same  time  its  limitation.  Where  the  coopera- 
tive man  is  lacking,  the  economic  scheme  fails. 
What  has  wrecked  many  sanguine  enterprises  in 
cooperation  has  been,  as  a  rule,  not  their  business 
difficulties,  but  the  lack  of  patience,  self-sacrifice, 
or  honor  among  the  cooperators  themselves.  The 
passage  of  Caesar  across  the  Alps,  Mr.  Holyoake 
once  said,  was  most  seriously  delayed  by  the  num- 
ber of  asses  accompanying  the  troops,  and  the  prog- 
ress of  cooperation  is  retarded  by  the  same  animals. 
Thus  the  cooperative  system  is  a  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  first  condi- 
tion of  success  in  cooperation  is  a  constituency  of 
self-respecting  and  loyal  persons.  A  few  plain 
people  associate  themselves  in  a  cooperative  enter- 
prise, quite  unconscious  that  they  are  in  any  de- 
gree bearing  witness  to  the  social  principles  of  the 
gospel ;  they  apply  themselves  to  the  simple  prob- 
lem of  conducting  a  shop  or  factory  with  fidelity, 
self-sacrifice  and  patience ;  and  as  their  work  ex- 
pands they  seem  to  themselves  to  have  made  a 
good  commercial  venture,  while  in  fact,  in  one 
corner  of  the  great  industrial  world  they  are  illus- 
trating the  principle  of  the  Christian  religion,  that 
industrial  progress  begins  from  within. 

Such  is  the  point  of  view,  and  such  is  the  way  of 
approach,  which  are  indicated  by  the  teaching  of 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  28$ 

Jesus  in  its  relation  to  forms  of  industry.  Those 
methods  and  programmes  are  most  consistent  with 
the  gospel  which  enlarge  the  horizon  of  work,  and 
which  make  work  more  personal,  responsive,  origi- 
native, and  human.  All  ways  of  education  which 
enlarge  the  scope  and  significance  of  industrial  life 
are  justified  and  suggested  by  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Such  education  is  economically  justified  because 
it  provides  the  community  with  better  artisans, 
mechanics,  printers,  plumbers,  and  carpenters  ;  but 
it  is  much  more  fundamentally  justified  because 
it  enriches  and  strengthens  personality,  teaches 
respect  for  honest  work,  and  illuminates  work  with 
the  sense  of  beauty  and  the  love  of  truth.  What- 
ever thus  converts  a  machine  into  a  man,  permitting 
the  worker  to  look  at  his  work  from  above,  and  to 
interpret  it  from  within,  has  a  place  in  the  Christian 
programme  of  industrial  life.  It  not  only  contrib- 
utes to  economic  stability,  but  it  perpetuates  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ. 
'^^  There  still  remains  to  consider  in  this  connec- 
^  tion  the  third  social  principle  of  the  gospel,  which, 
in  fact,  dominates  and  interprets  the  other  two.  The 
doctrine  of  social  horizon  and  of  social  origin  meet 
in  the  social  ideal  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  surveys  the 
world  as  the  field  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  in- 
spires individuals  to  become  instruments  of  that 
kingdom.  When  one  thus  recalls  this  central  and 
commanding  hope  of  Jesus  concerning  the  future  of 
the  world,  and  the  language  he  habitually  used  con- 
cerning it,  there  is  certainly  in  his  ideal  a  striking 


286      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

likeness  to  many  a  hope  and  dream  of  the  modern 
industrial  world.  The  kingdom  of  God,  according 
to  Jesus,  is  to  be  found  in  the  gradually  realized, 
and  finally  perfected,  brotherhood  of  man.  This 
kingdom  is  to  come  in  ways  which  the  wise  and 
prudent  do  not  anticipate.  It  is  by  no  means  cer- 
tain that  it  will  come  through  a  peaceful  process  of 
social  evolution.  "  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but 
a  sword  !  "  ^  It  may  be  ushered  in  even  by  force  : 
"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and 
men  of  violence  take  it  by  force."  ^  It  will  be  a 
kingdom  hard  for  the  rich  to  enter,  but  the  poor, 
the  blind,  the  maimed,  and  the  lame  will  be  wel- 
comed into  it.^  It  is  a  kingdom  already  poten- 
tially existing  in  the  world,  like  a  seed  already 
planted  which  will  soon  grow  up^  to  overshadow  all 
the  herbs.*  Finally,  it  is  a  kingdom  in  which  a  new 
system  of  labor  will  prevail ;  ^  a  system  in  which  the 
workers  will  be  paid,  not  according  to  their  service, 
but  according  to  their  needs.  "  It  is  my  will  to 
give  unto  this  last,  even  as  unto  thee.  ...  So 
the  last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last."  ^  Is  there 
not  in  these  varied  descriptions  of  the  coming  king- 
dom of  God  an  extraordinary  anticipation  of  many 
modern  prophecies  of  industrial  revolution,  and  of 
an  international  and  universal  brotherhood  where 
there  shall  be  no  rich  and  no  poor,  where  from  each 
shall  be  demanded  according  to  his  powers,  and  to 
each  shall  be  given  according  to  his  needs  ?     Is  not 

1  Matt.  X.  34.  8  Luke  xiv.  21.  ^  Matt.  xx.  1-16. 

2  Matt.  xi.  12.         *  Matt.  xiii.  31.         «  Matt,  xx.  14,  i6. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  287 

this  hope  of  comprehensive  social  unity  even  now 
expanding  like  the  mustard  seed,  unobserved  by 
many  of  the  wise  and  prudent  of  the  world  ?  May 
it  not  be  said  of  the  fulfilment  of  this  social  pro- 
gramme, "  Watch  therefore,  for  ye  know  not  the 
day  nor  the  hour  ; " ^  and  again,  "This  generation 
shall  not  pass  away,  till  all  these  things  be  accom- 
plished" ?2  How  are  we  to  interpret  the  obvious 
likenesses  of  these  two  social  ideals,  that  of  the 
modern  teaching  of  collectivism  and  that  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God  ? 
We  have  already  more  than  once  recalled  one 
answer  which  is  frequently  given  to  this  question. 
These  likenesses,  it  is  said,  are  so  obvious  and 
striking  that  the  two  social  ideals  must  be  re- 
garded as  practically  identical.  Jesus  was  a  social- 
ist. If  he  had  lived  in  our  day  he  would  have  been 
a  Messiah  of  this  new  gospel  which  defends  the 
poor  against  the  rich,  and  opposes  the  domination 
of  capitalism  with  an  ideal  of  industrial  justice. 
"There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt,"  remarks  a 
German  theologian,  "that  the  fundamental  ideals 
of  socialism  are  to  be  referred  back  to  Jesus."  ^ 
Much  as  there  is,  however,  in  the  language  of 
the  gospels  to  encourage  this  view,  such  an  iden- 
tification of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  with  modern 
socialism  has  never  thoroughly  commended  itself 
even  to  socialists  themselves.    The  more  thought- 

1  Matt.  XXV.  13.  ^  Matt.  xxiv.  34. 

«  O.  Holtzmann,  "  Jesus  Christus  und  das  Gemeinschaftsleben 
der  Men^chen,"  1893,  s.  14. 


288      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

ful  and  scholarly  advocates  of  radical  reform  have 
felt,  though  they  have  not  always  analyzed  their 
feeling,  a  subtle  difference,  as  of  a  change  of 
atmosphere,  when  they  passed  from  the  region 
of  their  social  schemes  and  approached  the 
spirit  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  One  breathes  in 
the  gospels  a  climate  of  tolerance,  mercy,  and 
many-sidedness,  which  is  far  from  stimulating  to 
the  socialist's  temper,  and  moderates  the  bitter- 
ness of  his  indictment  of  the  world.  Glad  as 
organized  socialism  might  be,  therefore,  to  appro- 
priate for  its  programme  the  spiritual  forces  of  the 
modern  world,  it  has  never  felt  quite  secure  in 
accepting  as  an  ally  the  impulses  of  the  Christian 
religion.  It  has  permitted  the  religious  sentiment 
to  exist  "as  a  private  affair,"  but  there  has  been 
little  inclination  to  a  formal  alliance.  The  undi- 
vided allegiance  demanded  by  the  socialist  ideal 
would  be,  it  is  felt,  less  heartily  rendered  if  at  the 
same  time  one  were  encouraged  to  be  loyal  to  the 
ideals  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  suspicion  thus  manifested  by  the  thought- 
ful socialist  proceeds  from  a  sound  instinct.  When 
one  passes  from  the  level  of  the  social-democratic 
programme  to  the  level  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
there  may  be  indeed  much  likeness  in  the  land- 
scape which  one  surveys,  but  a  difference  of  eleva- 
tion is  immediately  perceptible,  and  a  change  is 
felt  which  is  nothing  less  than  climatic.  A  new 
quality  of  social  feeling,  a  new  flora,  as  it  were, 
of  social  virtues,  a  new  diversity  and  comprehen- 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  289 

siveness  of  social  judgments,  prove  that,  though 
the  outlook  be  the  same,  we  stand  at  a  greater 
height.  Thus  it  happens  that  to  those  who  habit- 
ually look  at  life  in  terms  of  the  socialist  creed  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  full  of  surprises.  Sympathy 
with  the  socialist  aim  Jesus  constantly  exhibits, 
yet  he  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  safe  teacher. 
The  socialist  never  feels  quite  sure  what  Jesus 
may  say  next.  Many  of  his  sayings  read  like 
orthodox  socialist  doctrine ;  but,  of  a  sudden, 
there  is  uttered  something  quite  destructive  of 
the  socialist  creed,  and  it  is  as  if  among  familiar 
plants  one  should  come  suddenly  upon  a  flower 
which  belonged  to  quite  another  and  a  sunnier 
zone. 

Consider,  for  instance,  that  saying  of  Jesus 
which  has  received  much  commendation  from 
socialist  writers,  —  the  principle  of  remuneration 
proposed  for  the  laborers  in  the  vineyard.  ^  All 
who  are  ready  to  work  are,  it  is  announced,  to  be 
paid  an  equal  and  a  living  wage.  The  fact  that 
one  man  has  a  better  chance  in  life  does  not 
guarantee  him  a  better  compensation.  "  It  is  my 
will  to  give  unto  this  last,  even  as  unto  thee."  ^ 
Was  ever  a  parable  of  industry  more  prophetic  of 
the  modern  programme .?  Does  it  not  almost  an- 
ticipate the  new  formula :  "  Man  for  man,  time 
for  time ;  from  each  according  to  his  capacity,  to 
each  according  to  his  needs  " .?     Was  it  not  this 

1  Matt.  XX.  14,  and  xix.  30 ;  Mark  x.  31  ;  Luke  xiii.  30, 

2  Matt.  XX.  14, 

u 


290      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

saying  of  Jesus  which  made  the  text  of  Mr.  Ruskin's 
splendid  indictment  of  the  economics  of  competi- 
tion and  the  basis  of  his  doctrine  of  a  non-com- 
petitive, just  exchange  ?  ^ 

If  this  saying,  we  must  answer,  were  the  whole 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  industrial  life, 
we  should  certainly  have  a  most  sweeping  doctrine 
of  social  revolution.  No  sooner,  however,  do  we 
turn  a  few  pages  of  the  gospel,  than  we  find  a  con- 
ception of  social  life  apparently  in  complete  opposi- 
tion to  the  doctrine  of  equality,  — a  law  of  essential 
and  cumulative  inequality.  The  servant,  we  read, 
who  has  been  trusted  with  five  talents  doubles  them 
in  trade,  and  his  master  says  to  him,  "  Well  done, 
.  .  .  for  unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be  given,"  ^ 
and  on  the  other  hand,  the  servant  to  whom  least  was 
intrusted  receives  the  rebuke,  "  From  him  that  hath 
not,  even  that  which  he  hath  shall  be  taken  away." 
The  same  principle  of  cumulative  returns  is  applied 
by  Jesus  not  only  to  gain  in  money,  but  also  to  gain 
in  knowledge.  To  the  disciples  who  have  already 
learned  something  of  the  new  gospel  it  is  given 
to  know  more.  They  shall  learn  of  the  "  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  ^  but  to  others  it  is 
not  given ;  so  that  one  man  in  his  spiritual  knowl- 
edge shall  have  "abundance,"  and  from   another 

i"Unto  this  Last"  (concluding  paragraph),  "Go  forth,  then, 
weeping,  bearing  precious  seed,  until  the  time  come  and  the  king- 
dom when  Christ's  gift  of  bread  and  bequest  of  peace  shall  be  Untq 
this  Last  as  unto  thee." 

2  Matt.  XXV.  23,  29.  •  Matt.  xiii.  11. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  29I 

"shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath."^ 
The  same  law  is  applied  again  to  the  capacity  of 
observation  or  of  judgment.  The  man  who  takes 
heed  "how  he  hears,"  finds  his  capacity  of  hearing 
and  of  judging  enriched,  while  he  who  covers  his 
lamp  with  a  vessel  or  puts  it  under  a  bed  finds 
secret  things  less  and  less  manifest,  until  even 
that  discernment  which  he  seems  to  have  is  by 
degrees  taken  from  him.^ 

What  is  to  be  said  of  this  principle  of  cumulative 
returns  and  cumulative  losses,  in  money,  in  learning, 
or  in  capacity  ?  The  first  thing  to  say  of  it  is,  that 
it  is  a  principle  which  is  unquestionably  and  pro- 
foundly true.  The  whole  experience  of  life  testifies 
to  the  enlargement  of  capacity  through  its  use,  and 
to  the  shrinking  of  unused  faculties  as  of  unused 
limbs.  One  of  the  most  effective  spurs  of  human 
effort  is  the  assurance  that  energy  once  set  in 
motion  gets  momentum ;  that  it  is  the  first  accu- 
mulation of  money,  or  of  skill,  which  costs ;  that 
returns  of  money  or  of  work  are  like  seeds,  which, 
when  once  planted,  grow  while  man  sleeps ;  and 
that  such  acquisitions,  once  attained,  may  be  even 
transmitted  from  parents  to  children  and  prolong 
the  action  of  the  law  of  cumulative  returns.  The 
opposite  aspect  of  the  truth  is  no  less  obvious.  A 
world  of  cumulative  gains  must  be  one  of  cumu- 
lative losses.  It  is  a  world,  therefore,  where  in- 
equality is  an  essential  aspect  of  human  life,  in 

1  Mark  iv.  25. 

*  Luke  viii,  i6-i8j  Mark  iv.  25 ;  gompare  Rev.  ii.  5. 


s/ 


292      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

which  unused  capacity  declines,  and  undeveloped 
resources  shrivel  into  weakness  and  impotency. 
The  poor  man  often  grows  poorer  for  no  other 
reason  than  because  he  has  not  that  little  which 
would  give  him  his  chance  to  get  more ;  the  evil 
life  propagates  itself  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion until  it  passes  from  ignorance  to  vice,  and 
from  vice  to  sheer  degeneracy;  trouble  breeds 
trouble  ;  mistakes  lead  to  further  mistakes ;  one 
lapse  from  virtue  tempts  to  deeper  sin,  until  they 
which  have  not  seem  stripped  even  of  that  which 
they  have.  Here,  however,  is  a  social  law  which 
seems  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  socialist 
ideal, —  a  law,  indeed,  which  represents  that  view 
of  the  world  against  which  the  socialist  most  hotly 
contends.  When,  therefore,  the  socialist  reads  no 
less  than  six  times  in  the  first  three  gospels  that 
this  is  a  world  of  essential  inequality,  must  he  not 
hesitate  to  claim  for  his  cause  the  support  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  and  may  he  not  fairly  wonder 
how  this  assurance  of  cumulative  returns  could 
have  come  from  the  same  lips  which  announced 
equality  of  payment  as  the  law  of  the  Lord's  vine- 
yard ? 

How  is  it,  then,  that  there  can  legitimately  exist 
within  the  teaching  of  Jesus  two  principles  of 
industrial  life  which  seem  so  completely  irrecon- 
cilable ?  To  announce  at  one  moment  that  the 
last  comer  shall  be  first,  and  at  another  moment 
that  he  who  has  shall  have  more,  is  from  the  point  of 
view  of  economic  teaching  sheer  self-contradiction. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  293 

Jesus,  however,  is  not  thinking  of  economic  profits 
or  losses,  but  of  the  education  of  human  souls  for 
the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  he  observes  that  in  God's 
training  of  men  the  two  principles  coexist,  —  the 
principle  of  cumulative  returns  and  the  principle 
of  proportionate  judgment.  On  the  one  hand,  a 
man  is  led  to  do  his  best  because  he  has  perceived 
that  capacity,  power,  and  resources  either  develop 
or  shrink,  so  that  to  him  who  hath  is  given  and 
from  him  who  hath  not  will  be  taken  away.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  same  man  is  aware  that  the 
judgments  of  God  will  be  determined,  not  by  abso- 
lute achievements,  but  by  proportionate  fidelity. 
*'  To  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  him  shall  much 
be  required  ; "  ^  and  of  him  whose  opportunity  has 
been  least,  but  who  has  been  faithful  to  it,  the 
great  word  may  be  spoken,  "  It  is  my  will  to  give 
unto  this  last,  even  as  unto  thee."^  Thus  the  two 
principles  which  are  economically  inconsistent  are 
spiritually  allied.  At  the  evening,  when  the  Lord 
of  the  vineyard  comes,  saying,  **Call  the  labour- 
ers, and  pay  them  their  hire,"^  the  man  who  has 
achieved  little  may  hide  himself  behind  his  success- 
ful brethren,  saying,  **I  am  but  an  unprofitable 
servant ;  my  opportunity  has  been  slight,  and  my 
gains  are  few,"  but  the  principle  of  a  proportionate 
judgment  gives  him  the  place  which  his  desire  and 
his  fidelity  have  won. 

**  'Tis  not  what  man  does  which  exalts  him,  but  what  man 
would  do,"  — 

1  Luke  xii.  48.  «  Matt.  xx.  14.  »  Matt.  xx.  8. 


294      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

says  Browning's   David ;   and   the   same  note  is 
struck  by  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra, 

"  What  I  aspired  to  be 
And  was  not,  comforts  me." 

The  true  relation  between  the  social  ideal  of 
Jesus  and  the  social  ideal  of  the  modern  revo- 
lutionist comes  then,  at  last,  into  view.  The 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  social  order  holds  the 
programme  of  the  socialist,  and  holds  much  more. 
There  is  a  place  in  the  gospel  for  the  principle  of 
equal  compensation  ;  but  there  is  also  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  opposite  truth  of  unequal  endowment. 
The  relation,  therefore,  between  the  two  social 
ideals  is  like  that  of  two  parallel  lines  lying  in 
different  planes.  There  is  the  same  direction  in 
both,  and,  if  one  regards  their  direction  only,  the 
one  line  of  social  movement  may  be  easily  mis- 
taken for  the  other.  The  two  lines  lie,  however, 
on  different  levels  of  experience ;  they  have  differ- 
ent starting-points  and  different  ends,  and  their 
paths  can  never  meet.  The  motives  from  which 
the  two  proceed,  and  the  ideals  toward  which  they 
lead,  are  in  different  zones  of  human  desire.  The 
socialist  programme  begins  with  the  observation 
of  economic  needs  and  ends  in  an  ideal  of  eco- 
nomic change ;  the  teaching  of  Jesus  begins  with 
the  sense  of  spiritual  need  and  ends  in  the  ideal  of 
a  spiritual  kingdom.  Both  social  teachings  move 
through  the  life  of  the  real  world,  giving  laws  to 
its  industry  and  direction  to  its  energy ;  but  the 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  295 

aim  of  the  one  is  to  make  the  poor  rich,  and  the 
aim  of  the  other  is  to  make  the  bad  good.  The 
sociaHst  philosophy  finds  in  economic  transforma- 
tion the  cause  of  character;  Jesus  counts  on  char- 
acter to  bring  about  economic  transformation. 
The  one  plan  builds  up  social  life  from  below,  the 
other  derives  it  from  above.  The  cooperative 
commonwealth  is  to  rise  out  of  a  new  arrangement 
of  production ;  the  New  Jerusalem  is  to  descend 
out  of  heaven  from  God. 

Here  are  two  ideals  of  the  social  order  which, 
parallel  though  their  lines  may  be,  are  by  no 
means  identical.  It  is  one  thing  to  think  of  in- 
dustrial change  as  a  means  of  spiritual  education, 
and  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  think  of  indus- 
trial change  as  a  means  of  abolishing  private 
property.  The  socialist  programme  proposes  an 
industrial  system  which  must  depend  for  its 
perpetuation  on  unselfishness,  magnanimity,  and 
simplicity  of  character ;  but  it  makes  no  ade-  y 
quate  provision  for  the  training  of  these  virtues.^ 
Nationalize  the  means  of  production,  it  is  said, 
abolish  the  capitalists,  and  then  the  same  persons 
who  are  to-day  ambitious,  competitive  and  self- 
seeking  will  become  public-spirited,  generous,  and 
self-controlled.  Cleanse  the  outside  of  the  cup 
and  platter,  and  the  inside  will  be  purified  of  raven- 
ing and  wickedness.  Extend  the  line  of  econopiic 
development,  and  it  will  run  up  into  the  qualities  of 

1  Compare,  3ter  Evang.-soz.  Kongress,  1892;  A.  Wagner,  "Da3 
neue  sozialdemokratische  Programm,"  s.  96  fF. 


296      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

i  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  looks 
at  the  world  of  industry  from  precisely  the  opposite 
point  of  view.  It  passes  no  judgment  on  economic 
programmes,  hov^^ever  radical  those  programmes 
may  be.  It  affirms,  however,  that,  until  industrial 
life  is  lifted  to  the  level  of  a  moral  opportunity  and 
taken  in  hand  as  a  trust  from  God,  no  economic 
scheme,  however  promising  it  may  be,  has  the 
assurance  of  effectiveness  or  permanence.  There 
may  be  grave  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  the 
existing  machinery  of  industry,  but  the  chief  diffi- 
culty with  industrial  life,  according  to  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  is  not  mechanical,  but  moral.  The  devil 
has  tempted  modern  men  as  he  once  tempted 
Jesus,  showing  them  all  the  glories  of  the  world, 
and  saying,  **  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if 
thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me ; "  ^  and  many 
a  modern  man  has  accepted  the  terms.  Accord- 
ing to  Jesus,  the  root  of  the  industrial  question  is 
not  in  conditions,  but  in  character.  It  has  become 
a  threatening  social  question,  not  because  the 
economic  system  is  bad,  but  because  people  are. 
Its  solution  is  to  be  reached,  not  primarily  through 
good  machinery,  but  through  good  men.  No 
arrangement  of  industry  can  be  devised  which  is 
beyond  the  possibility  of  being  utilized  for  evil  by 
unscrupulous  and  designing  men  ;  and  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  control  of  industry  were  in  the 
hands  of  conscientious  and  generous  men,  then 
almost  any  economic  system  —  even  the  present 
1  Matt.  iv.  9. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  297 

one  —  might  perhaps  prove  itself  sufficiently  effec- 
tive and  just,  and  the  industrial  revolution,  which 
now  appears  to  many  minds  imperative,  might 
come  to  seem  superfluous.^ 

Through  this  contrast  of  ideals,  then,  we  are 
brought  into  sight  of  the  practical  problem  of 
modern  industry.  Here  is  the  upper  level  of 
social  development,  as  traced  for  us  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus;  and  here  is  the  lower  level  of  eco- 
nomic change,  as  indicated  to  us  by  scientific 
socialism.  Above,  is  the  conception  of  industrial 
life  as  moving  toward  the  kingdom  of  God ;  below, 
is  the  pursuit  of  happiness  to  be  attained  through, 
better  economic  distribution.  In  this  condition  of 
things  the  present  industrial  alternatives  may  be 
perhaps  thus  stated,  —  that  if  the  social  movement 
does  not  proceed  along  the  higher  plane  of  prog- 
ress, it  is  extremely  likely  to  proceed  along  the 
lower  plane.  A  problem  so  intensely  felt  as  is 
the  industrial  question  of  the  present  day  is 
bound  to  find  some  channel  of  expression,  and  if 
this  stream  of  passionate  feeling  does  not  follow 
the  line  marked  out  for  it  by  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  then  the  channel  which  seems,  for  the  time, 
most  ready  to  receive  the  stream  is  that  of  the 
socialist  transformation.  In  fact,  these  alterna- 
tives are  already  indicated  by  the  spirit   of  the 

*  On  the  tendency  of  the  institution  of  private  property  to  de- 
velop altruism,  see  the  remarkable  admissions  of  L.  Stein,  "  Die 
soziale  Frage  im  Lichte  der  Philosophic,"  s.  105  ff.,  and  comments 
thereon  in  International  Journal  of  Ethics^  April,  1898,  p.  364  ff. 


298      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

modern  agitation.  The  creed  of  social  revolution 
has  become,  in  many  minds,  a  distinct  substitute 
for  a  spiritual  religion.  It  has  drawn  to  itself  the 
same  emotional  loyalty  and  zeal  which  are  com- 
monly associated  with  a  religious  faith.  Men  go 
to  the  scaffold  for  the  cause  of  revolution  as  they 
once  died  for  Christ,  and  with  a  spirit  akin  to 
that  of  Christian  martyrs  give  their  lives  for  the 
creed  of  the  social  democracy.  When  one  remem- 
bers that  this  creed,  which  commands  such  devo- 
tion, is  in  its  form  an  economic  programme,  and 
that  the  articles  of  this  religion  deal,  not  with 
supernatural  realities,  but  with  questions  of  wages 
and  taxation,  the  passionate  attachment  of  social- 
ists to  their  faith  may  well  seem  surprising. 
Why  is  it  that  such  extraordinary  devotion  is 
offered  to  an  industrial  programme,  and  indeed 
to  a  programme  which  by  many  of  its  adherents 
is  but  very  vaguely  understood }  It  is  because 
this  creed,  unspiritual  though  it  seems,  represents 
to  millions  of  people  a  religion,  and  provides  a  sub- 
stitute for  that  teaching  of  the  Christian  Church 
which  they  have  been  led  to  reject.  In  short,  the 
acceptance  of  social  revolution  as  a  religion  is  a 
practical  indictment  of  the  religious  teaching  of 
the  Christian  Church.  The  religious  emotion 
demands  some  way  of  utterance  even  in  those 
who  reject  religion,  and  the  socialist  movement 
provides  a  way  of  utterance  for  many  persons  who 
have  lost  faith  in  the  purposes  of  Christianity. 
The   socialist   programme,  in  other  words,  repre- 


THE    INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  299 

sents  the  penalty  which  the  modern  world  is  pay- 
ing for  its  insufficient  obedience  to  the  social 
teaching  of  Jesus.  If  social  progress  had  pro- 
ceeded steadily  and  firmly  along  the  higher  level 
of  spiritual  education,  there  would  have  been  little 
provocation  to  transfer  this  progress  to  the  lower 
level  of  industrial  revolution.  Failing,  however, 
to  find  in  religion  anything  real,  what  could  plain 
people  do  but  make  of  socialism  a  real  religion } 
It  is  a  question  of  alternatives.  The  revolt  of  the 
laboring  classes  is  a  pathetic  attempt  to  find  a 
substitute  for  religious  faith,  and  the  only  effec- 
tive way  to  meet  that  revolt  is  to  prove  that  the 
Christian  religion  is  rational,  practicable,  socially 
redemptive  and  economically  justified.^ 

Such,  then,  appears  to  be  some  suggestion  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  its  relations  to  forms  of 
modern  industry.  He  surveys  economic  problems 
from  above,  and  perceives  that  fidelity  in  the  affairs 
of  industry  opens  the  way  to  the  kingdom ;  he 
approaches  economic  problems  from  within,  and 
finds  their  key  in  character ;  finally,  with  a  trium- 
phant hope,  he  pictures  this  eager  life  of  the  world 
of  trade  taken  up  into  the  Divine  process  of  spir- 
itual education,  and  moving  along  the  higher  level 
of  his  social  idealism  toward  the  realization  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  It  was  pointed  out,  however, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  chapter,  that  the 

1  Compare  also,  "The  Kernel  and  the  Husk"  (Am.  ed.  1887), 
p.  326  ff.  :  "  It  appears,  then,  that  what  is  called  *  Socialism '  is 
really  nothing  but  a  narrow  and  unwise  form  of  Christianity." 


300      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

problem  of  form  in  industry  constituted  by  no  means 
the  whole  of  the  industrial  question,  but  that  behind 
the  economic  forms  now  proposed  there  lay  the 
ethical  spirit  of  the  present  agitation,  giving  power 
and  passion  to  many  a  scheme  which  in  its  form 
might  be  misdirected  or  immature.  It  remains 
therefore  to  consider  the  relation  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  to  the  prevailing  spirit  of  modern  industrial 
life,  and  to  observe  the  motives  and  passions  on 
which  he  relies  for  industrial  progress. 

The  first  spiritual  quality  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  which  is  thus  applicable  to  modern  industry 
has  been  already  noticed  in  his  utterances  con- 
cerning the  kingdom  of  God.  This  fulfilment  of 
his  ideal  is  anticipated  by  Jesus  with  a  persistent, 
and,  as  it  must  have  seemed  to  many  who  were 
with  him,  a  Quixotic,  hope.  In  the  face  of  the 
gravest  obstructions  and  misapprehensions  he  pro- 
claims that  the  kingdom  is  at  hand :  "The  kingdom 
of  God  is  come  nigh  unto  you ; "  ^  '*  The  kingdom 
of  God  is  within  you;"^  "There  be  some  .  .  . 
which  shall  in  no  wise  taste  of  death,  till  they  see 
the  kingdom  of  God."^  Jesus,  that  is  to  say,  is 
the  most  unfaltering  of  optimists.  He  sits  with 
his  friends  by  the  well  of  Jacob,  watching  the 
peasants  as  they  plough  the  fertile  field  in  the 
early  spring,  and  he  contrasts  the  slow  process  of 
the  seasons  with  the  immediate  ripening  of  his 
own  work.  Say  not  of  our  mission,  he  tells  his 
disciples,   as   the   farmer   says   of  his   task,   that 

1  Luke  X.  9.  8  Luke  xvii.  21.  •  Luke  ix.  27. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  3OI 

months  must  pass  before  the  harvest  comes ;  lift 
up  your  eyes  beyond  this  valley  to  the  field  of  the 
world,  which  is  "white  already  unto  harvest."  ^ 
How  unreasonable  and  exaggerated  such  opti- 
mism must  have  seemed  to  many  a  judicious  ob- 
server of  the  signs  of  the  times !  How  meagre, 
in  fact,  was  the  welcome  which  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  practically  received !  How  quickly  it  was 
to  meet  with  defeat  and  blight,  like  a  seed  that 
had  been  planted  in  sterile  sand !  How  soon  that 
field  of  his  mission  which  Jesus  had  prophesied 
should  be  white  with  harvest  was  to  become  Acel- 
dama, a  field  of  blood !  Yet,  how  unswervingly, 
at  every  step  of  his  ministry,  Jesus  was  guided 
by  his  unconquerable  optimism !  He  believed  in 
people  who  did  not  believe  in  themselves.  He  dis- 
cerned good  in  people  who  seemed  to  themselves 
irretrievably  bad.  He  forgave  people  whom  the 
judicious  had  condemned.  He  inspired  people  to 
be  what  he  desired  them  to  be.  The  wavering  and 
unstable  Peter  must  have  seemed  to  himself  much 
more  like  shifting  sand  than  like  solid  rock ;  but 
Jesus  discerns  within  that  feeble  discipleship  an 
underlying  quality  of  strength,  and  calls  on  Peter 
to  be  the  rock  which  his  name  implies,  and  the 
character  of  the  disciple  grows  firm  and  consistent 
under  the  touch  of  the  Master's  confidence  and 
hope.  Finally,  Jesus,  with  a  transcendent  opti- 
mism, trusts  his  entire  teaching  to  followers  who, 
as  he  well  knew,  understood  but  imperfectly  what 

1  John  iv.  35. 


302      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

they  had  learned  from  him.  He  is  sure  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  will  some  day  guide  them  into  all  truth, 
and  bring  to  their  remembrance  all  that  he  had 
said  to  them.i  He  is  not  discouraged  by  the 
waste  of  much  precious  seed,^  by  the  growth  of 
tares  among  the  grain,^  by  the  unfaithfulness  of 
stewards,*  by  the  unresponsiveness  of  the  wise  and 
prudent,^  or  even  by  the  disloyalty  of  friends.^ 
Sometimes  the  splendor  of  his  hope  blazes  out  in 
Oriental  images  of  mighty  triumph.  "The  Son  of 
man,"  he  says,  "shall  come  in  the  glory  of  his 
Father  with  his  angels." ^  "As  the  lightning 
Cometh  forth  from  the  east,  and  is  seen  even  unto 
the  west ;  so  shall  be  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man."^  "From  henceforth  shall  the  Son  of  man 
be  seated  at  the  right  hand  of  the  power  of  God."  ^ 
In  short,  through  all  the  obstacles  of  bigotry, 
stupidity,  hardheartedness,  hypocrisy  and  ecclesi- 
asticism  which  confronted  him,  Jesus  remains  a 
consistent  optimist,  confident  that  the  world  about 
him  is  ready  for  his  message,  and  that  the  fulness 
of  time  is  come. 

When  we  turn  from  this  quality  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  to  the  prevailing  spirit  of  modern  indus- 
trial agitation,  we  find  a  curious  mingling  of  traits. 
On  the  one  hand  is  an  optimism  quite  as  thorough- 
going as  that  with  which  Jesus  surveyed  the  signs 
of  his  own  time.      There  are,   indeed,  observers 

1  John  xvi.  13  ;  XV.  26.    *  Matt.  xxv.  24-28.    "^  Matt.  xvi.  27. 

2  Matt.  xiii.  4-7.  *  Matt.  xi.  25.  *  Matt.  xxiv.  27. 
8  Matt.  xiii.  25,  26.          *  Matt.  xxvi.  21.          ®  Luke  xxii.  69. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  303 

who  find  in  the  present  social  order  no  ground 
whatever  for  social  hope.  The  feverish  haste  and 
tumultuous  agitation  of  the  present  time  are,  to 
such  persons,  signs  of  social  bankruptcy  and  ap- 
proaching chaos.  They  retreat  from  this  decadent 
civilization  to  the  monastic  life  of  some  commu- 
nistic society,  or  register  their  protest  against  the 
whole  tendency  of  modern  society,  or  sit  on  the 
bank  of  the  hurrying  stream  of  modern  life  and  plan 
some  impossible  diversion  of  its  current  or  some  re- 
striction of  its  flow.  This  frame  of  mind,  however, 
—  the  spirit  of  social  reaction  or  despondency, — 
is  as  far  as  possible  from  the  spirit  of  the  scien- 
tific socialist.  He  has  no  desire  to  retreat  from 
the  tendencies  of  modern  economic  life,  or  even  to 
counteract  their  effects.  On  the  contrary,  he  wel- 
comes the  increasing  complexity  of  industrial  life 
as  a  prophecy  of  his  gospel.  His  creed  is  taught 
in  a  spirit  of  the  most  buoyant  optimism.  The 
social  conditions  which  for  the  present  exist  are 
regarded  by  him,  not  as  signs  of  increasing  evil, 
but  as  essential  preliminaries  of  that  better 
future  which  is  soon  to  come.  They  are  a  phase 
of  social  evolution  which  is  essential  to  progress, 
but  which  is  now  in  its  turn  destined  to  disap- 
pear. Even  those  economic  tendencies  which 
many  reformers  regard  with  alarm  are,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  consistent  socialist, 
contributory  to  the  one  great  end  toward  which 
social  evolution  works.  The  vast  combinations 
of  capital  which  seem  to  threaten  industrial  de- 


304      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

mocracy  are  in  reality  only  the  forerunners  which 
prepare  its  way.  Let  centralization  of  control,  it 
is  said,  proceed,  let  trust  be  joined  to  trust,  until 
industrial  life  becomes  one  vast  monopoly,  and 
then  the  time  will  be  ripe  for  the  cooperative  com- 
monwealth ;  the  producers  will  at  last  take  con- 
trol of  the  mechanism  which  was  devised  to  crush 
them,  and  out  of  a  world  of  seeming  evil  there  will 
issue  a  world  of  perfect  good.  Social  evolution 
will  be  fulfilled  when  the  democracy,  which  has 
already  learned  to  govern  itself,  will  at  last  come 
to  produce  for  itself.  The  socialist  is  sustained 
by  a  vaster  hope  of  social  transformation  than  the 
world  has  known  since  the  days  of  the  optimism 
of  Jesus,  and  may  be  tempted  to  repeat  his  confi- 
dent prophecy,  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  at  the 
fields,  for  they  are  white  already  unto  harvest." 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  beneath  this  strain  of 
optimism  in  modern  socialism  there  is  often  a 
curious  and  jarring  note  of  social  pessimism.  The 
mood  of  morbid  despondency  and  reckless  cyni- 
cism which  is  blighting  so  much  of  modern  litera- 
ture seems  to  be  peculiarly  attracted  by  schemes 
of  social  revolution.  An  aflfinity  may  be  observed 
between    literary   and    social    iconoclasm.^      The 

'^  E.g.  Ibsen,  Letter  to  Georg  Brandes:  "The  State  must  be 
abolished.  In  a  revolution  that  would  bring  about  so  destructive 
a  consummation  I  should  gladly  take  part.  .  .  .  Changes  in  the 
form  of  government  are  nothing  else  than  different  degrees  of  tri- 
fling—  a  little  more  or  a  little  less  absurd  folly."  Compare  also, 
H.  Van  Dyke,  "The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt,"  1896,  Lecture  I 
^and  citations  in  Appendix). 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  305 

belief  that  modern  morals  are  but  disguised  ani- 
malism and  modern  society  is  but  a  tissue  of  con- 
ventional shams  induces  the  further  belief  that 
the  social  order  is  doomed  and  that  a  social  ca- 
tastrophe is  at  hand.  This  social  pessimism  is 
fostered  by  preachers  of  the  socialist  creed.  If 
all  social  hope  is  to  be  set  on  the  one  great  end 
of  revolution,  why,  it  is  asked,  should  one  concern 
one's  self  with  efforts  to  better  the  world  as  it  now 
is  ?  Shall  we  not  rather  permit  the  present  social 
order  to  go  from  bad  to  worse  until,  at  last,  by  the 
pressure  of  its  own  inherent  evil,  it  is  shattered 
from  within,  and  upon  its  ruins  rises  the  democ- 
racy of  labor  ? 

Among  the  early  Christians  there  were  many 
who,  in  a  mood  akin  to  this,  awaited  the  '*end 
of  the  world."  ^  A  cataclysm,  they  believed, 
was  soon  to  occur  in  which  the  entire  fabric 
of  civilization  as  it  then  existed  was  to  disap- 
pear; and  those  who  so  believed  concerned  them- 
selves little  with  passing  phases  of  political  or 
social  reform,  but  withdrew  from  a  perishing 
world  and  made  ready  for  the  great  day  of  the 
Lord.  There  is,  however,  one  characteristic  of 
the  new  social  pessimism  which  sharply  distin- 
guishes it  from  the  spiritual  anticipations  of  the 
early  Christians.  They  lived  in  the  light  of 
their  Lord's  return,  and  had  no  doctrine  of  so- 
cial destruction  or  of  positive  antagonism  to  the 
social  order  j  the  modern  revolutionist  is,  first  of 

1  Matt.  xxiv.  3. 

z 


306      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

all,  an  enemy  of  things  as  they  are,  and  may,  in- 
deed,  follow  his  creed  but  little  beyond  its  destruc- 
tive teaching.  Social  reconstruction  is  too  remote 
and  vast  a  dream  to  make  an  effective  appeal  to 
the  imagination  of  plain  people,  but  social  obstruc- 
tion, and  the  destruction  of  the  present  social 
order  with  its  obvious  defects  and  wrongs,  make  a 
programme  which  can  be  easily  understood.  The 
first  lesson,  then,  in  the  catechism  of  industrial 
revolution  is  a  lesson  in  class  hatred.  No  perma- 
nent good,  it  is  taught,  can  be  expected  from  the 
employer  class,  however  excellent  its  members 
may  be;  no  social  ac^ustment  which  may  follow 
a  social  catastrophe  coilld  be  worse  for  the  work- 
ing-man than  is  the  present  order.  "Civilization," 
it  is,  with  profound  emotion,  said,  "denies  to 
man  the  right  to  live  a  guiltless  life.  .  .  .  What- 
ever I  do,  whichever  way  I  turn,  I  can  neither 
feed  nor  clothe  my  family,  nor  take  any  part  in 
public  affairs  as  a  citizen,  nor  speak  the  truth  as 
I  conceive  it,  without  being  stained  with  the  blood 
of  my  brothers  and  sisters."^ 

In  this  wail  of  social  pessimism,  however, 
great  numbers  of  intelligent  hand-workers  detect 
a  false  note.  They  are  perfectly  aware  that,  in 
spite .  of  many  industrial  hardships  and  injus- 
tices, the  standard  of  life  and  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  wage-earning  class  are  unmistak- 
ably  and   progressively  improving.      The   age  of 

1  The  Industrialist,  July,  1898;  G.  D.  Herron,  "The  Social 
System  and  the  Christian  Conscience." 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  307 

machinery  has  made  it  possible  to  secure  a  live- 
lihood in  fewer  hours  and  with  less  labor  than 
was  ever  possible  before.  The  general  ten- 
dency of  industrial  life  is  to  thrust  competent 
workmen,  not  down,  but  up,  and  to  fill  the  lower 
places  with  the  less  competent,  who  in  their  turn 
feel  the  up-draught  of  economic  progress.^  An 
industrial  programme  which  assumes  that  the 
present  order  is  hoplessly  evil  cannot  command 
the  loyalty  of  those  whose  experience  justifies  so- 
cial hope.  To  them  it  seems  by  no  means  certain 
that  an  industrial  catastrophe  would  be  a  greater 
blessing  than  that  ^which  may  come  through  the 
slow  processes  of  industrial  evolution.  In  short, 
those  who  have  any  stake  in  the  present  order 
hesitate  to  commit  themselves  to  a  gospel  of  social 
decadence  and  despair,  and  leave  the  creed  of  so- 
cial pessimism  to  be  preached  by  the  disaffected, 
the  unscrupulous,  the  ignorant,  or  the  academic. 
The  spirit  of  the  present  industrial  agitation, 
then,  has  in  one  aspect  a  remarkable  likeness  to  the 
spirit  of  Jesus,  while  in  another  aspect  it  is  radi- 
cally opposed  to  that  spirit.  In  its  intention  there 
is  the  same  confident  idealism,  but  in  its  method 
there  is  little  of  that  faith  in  individual  initiative 
and  in  the  possibilities  of  the  world  as  it  now  is, 
which  gave  to  the  teaching   of  Jesus  its  sanity. 

1  Compare  C.  D.  Wright,  Address  at  Mt.  Holyoke,  March  13, 
1899;  and  the  eloquent  essay  of  F.  Naumann,  "Der  Christ  im 
Zeitalter  der  Maschine,"  in  his  "  Was  heisst  Christlich-Sozial  ? " 


308      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

Thus  the  programme  of  the  socialist  alternately 
attracts  and  repels  the  followers  of  Jesus.  Its 
dream  of  an  industrial  world  of  greater  justice 
and  larger  opportunities  seems  but  a  renewal  of 
the  vision  of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  but  its  spirit, 
sedulously  fostering  social  distrust  and  despair, 
has  no  place  in  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom.  It  is 
difficult  for  persons  trained  in  the  Christian  tradi- 
tion to  imagine  the  reign  of  human  equity  and 
brotherhood  introduced  through  the  free  play  of 
passion  and  hate,  or  to  believe  that  a  bad  world 
can  be  transformed  by  one  external  device  into 
a  world  of  love  and  beauty.  Social  pessimism 
is  not  easily  combined  with  social  hope.  The 
optimism  of  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  is  consist- 
ent and  unfailing.  It  transforms  the  world  be- 
cause it  hopes  for  the  world.  Socialism  blackens 
the  character  of  the  real  world  to  heighten  the 
contrast  with  its  ideal ;  Jesus  illuminates  the  real 
world  and  makes  it  the  instrument  of  his  ideal. 
The  heart  of  man  naturally  responds  to  the  mes- 
sage of  the  optimist,  for  he  brings  that  which  is 
better  than  social  prosperity, — the  gift  of  hope. 
The  fulness  of  time  came  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
because  Jesus  had  such  fulness  of  hope  for  his 
own  time. 

What  was  it,  then,  we  go  on  to  ask,  which  justi- 
fied in  Jesus  this  hope  for  the  world  ?  It  was,  as 
it  has  been  the  main  purpose  of  our  inquiry  to  show, 
the  confidence  which  Jesus  had  in  the  capacity  of 
the  human  soul.    If  he  can  stir  but  a  few  individuals 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  3O9 

to  positive  loyalty  to  him  and  his  hope,  the  world 
and  its  redemption  are,  he  believes,  secure.  "All 
things  are  possible,"  he  says,  "  to  him  that  believ- 
eth."  ^  "  This  is  the  victory  that  hath  overcome 
the  world,  even  our  faith."  ^  His  most  anxious 
inquiry  of  his  disciples  is  this,  "  Do  ye  now 
believe  .^"^  The  gift  which  his  followers  soon 
learn  to  ask  of  him  is  the  gift  of  faith.  "  Lord," 
they  say,  "  Increase  our  faith."  *  The  instrument 
which  he  would  use  for  the  overturning  of  the 
world  is  the  power  of  personal  faith  :  "  If  ye  have 
faith,  ...  ye  would  say  unto  this  sycamine  tree.  Be 
thou  rooted  up,  and  be  thou  planted  in  the  sea ; 
and  it  would  have  obeyed  you."^  Here  is  the 
second  quality  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  which  affects 
his  social  teaching.  He  looks  upon  the  world 
with  hope,  because  he  acts  upon  it  through  faith. 
We  have  already  seen  that  his  social  teaching 
begins  with  the  individual  and  finds  the  key  of 
circumstances  in  the  growth  of  character.  Now, 
however,  we  must  consider  this  characteristic  of 
his  teaching,  not  as  a  method  or  programme,  but 
as  a  spiritual  dynamic,  a  guiding  passion,  an  instru- 
ment of  social  service.  What  Jesus  desired  to 
communicate  to  his  followers  was,  first  of  all,  a 
moral  initiative,  a  sense  of  spiritual  capacity.  He 
was  moved  by  what  the  author  of  "  Eccef  Homo  " 
accurately  calls  "the  enthusiasm  of  humanity." 
He  had  a  passion  for  personality.     The  contagion 

1  Mark  ix.  23.  ^  i  John  v.  4.  *  John  xvi.  31. 

*  Luke  xvii.  5.  ^  Luke  xvii.  6. 


310      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

of  his  spirit  disclosed  men  to  themselves,  from  the 
time  when  it  was  prophesied  of  him  that  through 
him  the  "thoughts  out  of  many  hearts  may  be 
revealed,"  ^  to  the  time  when  the  disciples,  walk- 
ing to  Emmaus,  said,  "  Was  not  our  heart  burning 
within  us,  while  he  spake  to  us  in  the  way?"^ 
Social  redemption,  according  to  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  begins  in  this  communication  to  human 
lives  of  the  spirit  of  an  active  faith. 

What  is  the  relation  of  this  second  character- 
istic of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  to  the  spirit  of  mod- 
ern industrial  life  ?  Does  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
because  it  is  primarily  addressed  to  the  individual, 
depreciate  or  ignore  the  efforts  which  the  modern 
world  devotes  to  the  improvement  of  external  con- 
ditions ?  On  the  contrary,  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  welcomes  every  industrial 
change  which  makes  in  any  way  for  the  making  of 
men,  which  gives  greater  scope  for  personal  initia- 
tive, or  which  discovers  and  confirms  personal  capac- 
ity. Jesus,  however,  is  a  teacher,  not  of  industrial 
mechanics,  but  of  spiritual  dynamics.  The  adjust- 
ment of  economic  conditions  is,  in  each  new  age, 
a  new  problem  of  social  mechanism,  to  be  solved 
by  new  devices  concerning  which  Jesus  can  have 
nothing  to  say ;  but  the  end  for  which  these  vary- 
ing forms  of  social  mechanism  are  devised  is  in  all 
ages  the  same.  It  is  the  production  of  personality, 
the  making  of  men. 

Each  economic  proposition  finds  itself,  sooner 

*  Luke  ii.  35.  *  Luke  xxiv.  32. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  3 II 

or  later,  confronted  by  this .  test,  and  at  this 
point  meets  the  teaching  of  Jesus.^  Consider, 
for  example,  the  effect  of  this  test  on  a  minor 
question  of  economic  life.  There  has  been,  of 
late,  much  discussion  of  the  value  of  thrift. 
Thrift,  in  less  advanced  days,  was  held  to  be  an 
elementary  social  virtue.  Young  persons  were 
encouraged  to  this  virtue  by  praise  and  reward, 
and  adults  by  the  establishment  of  banks  for 
savings.  Now,  however,  we  are  told  by  radical 
reformers  that  the  habit  of  saving  is  by  no  means 
to  be  regarded  as  an  unquestionable  social  ad- 
vantage, but  rather  as  a  serious  social  peril.  He 
who  learns  to  save  from  what  he  is  now  able  to 
earn  is,  it  is  said,  less  likely  to  demand  larger  earn- 
ings. He  is  inclined  to  be  satisfied  with  things  as 
they  are  and  grows  less  disposed  to  a  radical  change 
of  social  conditions.  As  his  savings  increase,  he 
grows  more  conservative  in  his  social  creed,  de- 
taches himself  from  the  interest  of  the  wage-earn- 
ing class,  and  goes  over  to  the  side  of  those  who  are 
perpetuating  social  injustice.  "We  teach  our  peo- 
ple," recently  said  a  labor  leader,  "  that  thrift  is  no 
virtue."  **  Thrift,"  said  John  Burns,  at  the  Trades 
Union  Congress  of  1894,  "was  invented  by  capital- 
ist rogues  to  deprive  honest  fools  of  their  proper 

1  So  Ruskin,  "  Fors  Qavigera,"  Letter  70.  "  Property  must  con- 
sist of  good  things,  not  bad  ones.  It  is  rightly  called  a  man's  goods, 
not  a  man's  *  bads  ; '  "  and  "  Munera  Pulveris,"  §  34,  "  We  must  dis- 
tinguish the  accidental  objects  of  morbid  desires  from  the  constant 
objects  of  legitimate  desires." 


312      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

standard  of  comfort,  so  that  their  balance  in  the 
bank  would  be  in  proportion  to  the  capacity  of  the 
workers  to  allow  themselves  to  be  deprived  of  their 
share  of  the  national  wealth."  What  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  his 
judgment  in  an  industrial  question  like  this  ? 
Jesus,  it  must  be  answered,  being  not  a  deviser 
of  social  programmes,  does  not  enter  into  the 
question  of  the  economics  of  thrift ;  but,  as  an 
inspirer  of  personal  lives,  offers  a  teaching  which 
has  a  distinct  bearing  on  the  ethics  of  saving. 
The  reason  which  that  teaching  would  emphasize 
for  encouraging  the  saving  of  money  is  not  that  it 
makes  more  money,  but  that  it  makes  better  men. 
The  first  justification  of  thrift  is  not  that  it  makes 
a  bank  account  large,  but  that  it  makes  people 
thrifty.  The  children  of  the  prosperous  as  well  as 
the  children  of  the  poor  may  be  taught,  through 
habits  of  thrift,  lessons  of  foresight,  self-respect, 
and  wise  generosity.  If  an  economic  programme 
does  not  encourage  frugality,  prudence,  and  self- 
control,  it  can  have  no  important  place  in  the 
future  of  society ;  for  no  industrial  future  can  per- 
manently prosper  which  is  to  be  ushered  in  by 
imprudent  or  spendthrift  habits.  The  man  who 
had  not  on  a  wedding  garment  found  no  satisfac- 
tion in  the  wedding  feast. 

Here,  then,  is  one  of  many  industrial  proposi- 
tions in  which  are  disclosed  both  the  likeness 
and  the  contrast  between  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
and  the  modern  tendencies  of  economic  life.     The 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  313 

teaching  of  Jesus  regards  not  comfort  but  char- 
acter as  the  object  of  economic  change.  It  is 
not  so  much  concerned  with  making  the  world 
soft  and  easy,  as  with  making  moral  fibre  hard 
and  strong.  Where  many  reformers  point,  with 
entire  justice,  to  an  effect  on  character  of  im- 
proved economic  conditions,  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
recalls  attention  to  the  marvellous  conquests  of 
unpropitious  economic  conditions  which  have  been 
achieved  by  men  of  faith.  Not  those  regions 
of  the  earth  where  nature  has  been  kindest  and 
labor  least  compulsory  have  been  economically 
most  prosperous,  but  those  which,  by  extorting 
struggle,  have  developed  manhood.  Not  the  sunny 
slopes  of  Italy  and  Spain,  or  the  incredible  fertility 
of  Egypt,  or  the  spontaneous  harvests  of  the  trop- 
ics, have  been  the  guarantees  of  industrial  pros- 
perity, but  the  incessant  battle  of  Holland  with 
the  sea,  and  of  Germany  with  superior  enemies  on 
every  side,  and  the  insular  necessities  of  Great 
Britain,  and  the  rugged  soil  and  climate  of  New 
England.  "What  do  you  raise  here.?"  asked  a 
traveller  in  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims,  "  from  this 
sand  and  these  rocks  ? "  And  the  answer  was, 
*'  We  raise  men."  ^ 

Such  is  the  spirit  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.     He 

1  On  the  influence  of  a  hostile  environment  on  "  social  fibre,"  see 
the  striking  view  of  Bagehot,  in  his  "  Physics  and  Politics,"  Ch.  II, 
"The  Use  of  Conflict."  Compare  also,  Spectator ,  April  8,  1899,  p. 
479,  on  the  Labor-Socialist  Conference,  "  The  competitive  struggle 
has  many  drawbacks,  but  at  least  it  produces  men,  and  it  is  men 
we  want  to  make,  not  great  associations  of  consumers  of  food." 


314      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

is  not  indifferent  to  the  amelioration  of  circum- 
stances; on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  inspiration  of 
his  teaching  which  has  suggested  most  of  the  en- 
terprises which  have  introduced  into  industrial  life 
the  sentiments  of  compassion  or  justice.  These 
industrial  enterprises,  however,  when  undertaken 
in  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  begin,  not  as  mechanical 
devices,  but  as  spiritual  desires.  The  individual 
dreams  of  an  industrial  relation  which  shall  verify 
the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  then  proceeds  to  show 
his  faith  through  his  works.  The  commercial 
scheme  expresses  the  personal  ideal.  Back  of  the 
system  is  the  man  of  faith.^  When  the  Son  of 
man  cometh,  he  will  look,  first  of  all,  not  for  a 
method  of  economic  distribution,  but  for  *'  faith  on 
the  earth."  2 

How  then,  one  finally  asks,  shall  this  spirit  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  practically  manifest  itself  ?  When 
a  man  is  stirred  by  the  optimism  of  Jesus  to  a  new 
quality  of  hope,  and  quickened  by  the  method  of 
Jesus  to  a  new  capacity  of  faith,  what  does  that 
man  want  to  do  ?  The  answer  to  this  question 
brings  us  to  the  last  command  of  the  social  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  —  the  great  word  "service,"  or  to 
that  other  word,  corrupted  by  the  usage  of 
Christian  sentimentalism  —  the  still  greater  word 

^  So  Leclaire,  in  his  first  experiment  of  the  system  of  profit-shar- 
ing: Sedley  Taylor,  "  Profit-sharing,"  1884,  p.  25,  "I  cannot  believe 
that  this  consummation  will  ever  be  reached  through  the  conflicts 
of  opposing  interests  ;  it  can  only  be  from  economic  science  enlight* 
ened  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Gospel." 

2  Luke  xviii.  8. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  315 

"love."  "I  am  in  the  midst  of  you,"  says  Jesus, 
"as  he  that  serveth."  ^  "The  Son  of  man  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."^ 
"Whosoever  would  be  first  among  you  shall  be 
your  servant." 3  "By  this  shall  all  men  know 
that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to 
another."*  According  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
the  evidence  of  what  is  now  called  success,  or  of 
what  the  gospel  calls  "glory,"  is  to  be  found  in 
the  capacity  and  the  willingness  to  serve.  When 
Jesus  knows  that  "the  Father  .  .  .  hath  given  all 
things  into  his  hand,"^  and  that  he  has  "come 
from  God  and  goes  to  God,"  what  does  he  offer 
as  the  witness  of  this  transcendent  leadership  ? 
He  lays  aside  his  garments  and  washes  his 
disciples'  feet,  and  when  he  has  done  this  lowly 
service  he  says,  "  Now  is  the  Son  of  man  glorified, 
and  God  is  glorified  in  him."^  Side  by  side  with 
the  symbolism  of  the  Lord's  Supper  there  should 
be  set  this  other  symbolism  of  the  Christian  life  — 
the  symbolism  of  service.  The  one  is  the  sign  of 
power  derived  from  Jesus ;  the  other  is  the  sign  of 
service  inspired  by  Jesus.  The  final  test  of  Chris- 
tian discipleship  is  in  its  capacity  to  stoop  and 
serve.^  "  For  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that 
ye  also  should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you."^ 

We  turn,  then,  with  this  last  quality  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  to  the  methods  of  modern  industrial  life, 

1  Luke  xxii.  27.  *  Matt.  xx.  27.  ^  John  xiii.  31, 

'  Matt.  XX.  28.  *  John  xiii.  35.  ^  John  xiii.  15. 

*  John  iii.  35. 


3l6      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

and  it  seems  at  first  sight  as  if  there  were  no  com- 
mon ground  on  which  the  two  might  meet.  What 
place  is  there,  one  asks,  for  such  words  as  service 
or  love  among  the  scrambling  competitions  of  the 
business  world  ?  What,  indeed,  is  the  world  of 
business  but  a  vast  battle-field  of  organized  self- 
interest,  a  gambling-table  with  enormous  stakes,  a 
lottery  where  a  few  great  prizes  tempt  a  hundred 
feverish  victims  to  venture  and  lose?  How 
strangely  it  would  sound  if  in  some  business  cen- 
tre the  great  words  were  spoken,  **  Whosoever 
would  be  first  among  you  shall  be  your  servant !"  ^ 
What  a  curious  motto  for  a  business  office  would 
be  the  words,  "By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  wise  men  of  business,  if  ye  have  love  one  to 
another."  Is  there  not,  on  the  other  hand,  abun- 
dant justification  for  that  passionate  hopelessness 
which  cries  out  in  the  name  of  Christ :  "  It  is  only 
the  densest  ethical  ignorance  that  talks  about  a 
Christian  business  life,  for  business  is  now  intrin- 
sically evil ;  .  .  .  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  ethi- 
cal bargain,  .  .  .  there  are  no  honest  goods  to  buy 
or  sell ;  .  .  .  the  hideous  industrial  war  .  .  .  makes 
the  industrial  system  seem  like  the  triumph  of 
hell  and  madness  on  the  earth ".^^ 
^  It  is  quite  true,  one  must  answer,  that  the  world 
of  industry  abounds  in  persistent  and  subtle  temp- 
tations of  self-seeking,  ambition,  cruelty,  and  bad 
faith.  Business  life  in  the  modern  world  is  to 
many  persons  what  the  exceeding  high  mountain 

1  Matt.  XX.  27.  2  The  Industrialist,  July,  1899,  G.  D.  Herron. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  317 

was  to  Jesus,  —  the  place  where  the  devil  exhibits 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  and  their  glory,  and 
says  again,  "  All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if 
thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me."  ^  No  man, 
it  must  be  fully  admitted,  deals  prudently  with  his 
business  affairs  who  does  not  daily  recognize  that 
he  is  likely  to  be  at  any  moment  tempted  of  the 
devil.  All  this,  however,  is  by  no  means  to  say 
that  the  business  world  is  in  its  ivature  irretrieva- 
bly depraved,  or  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
Christian  business  life  or  an  ethical  bargain.  On 
the  contrary,  there  are  many  aspects  of  the  busi- 
ness world  —  and  aspects  of  which  the  social  re- 
formers as  a  rule  take  small  account  —  where  both 
ethics  and  religion  have  an  important  part  in  shap- 
ing and  directing  modern  industry. 

In  the  first  place,  if  we  can  detach  ourselves  for 
a  moment  from  the  motives  and  passions  of  indi- 
viduals in  business,  and  observe  the  organization 
of  business  as  a  whole,  considering  its  total  work- 
ing and  results,  it  is  seen  to  be,  not  —  as  is  often 
asserted  —  a  scheme  of  destructiveness  and  social 
piracy,  but  a  vast  and  complex  movement  of  social 
service.  Crookedness  and  greed  enough  there  are 
on  the  surface  of  the  business  world,  as  the  surface 
of  a  stream  bears  along  much  scum  and  froth ;  but 
the  stream  itself,  as  it  sweeps  through  the  life  of 
the  time,  bears  in  its  current,  not  a  means  of  poi- 
soning the  age,  but  a  means  of  satisfying  its  needs. 
The  creation  of  new  forms  of  business  proceeds, 
1  Matt.  iv.  9. 


3l8      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION 

as  a  rule,  not  from  the  desire  to  rob  the  commu- 
nity, but  from  the  desire  to  serve  it;  and,  in  the 
main,  the  most  rewarding  forms  of  business  are 
those  which  are  based  on  the  discernment  of  real 
needs  and  the  supplying  of  real  benefits.  The 
amazing  multiplication  of  production  through  mod- 
ern machinery  works,  on  the  whole,  to  the  same 
large  end  of  social  service.  Tragedies  enough 
there  are  of  personal  loss  created  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  improved  mechanical  methods,  as  though 
machinery  were  designed  to  grind  in  pieces  the 
workmen  who  are  caught  in  its  wheels ;  yet  noth- 
ing is  more  obvious  than  that  machinery,  through 
its  marvellous  cheapening  of  production,  is  the  poor 
man's  friend  rather  than  his  enemy.  Startling, 
therefore,  as  may  be  the  temporary  successes 
achieved  in  defiance  of  the  natural  laws  of  busi- 
ness, the  movement  of  industry  on  the  whole  is  a 
movement  toward  good.  The  achievement  of  the 
arctic  explorer  Nansen  was  accomplished  by  com- 
mitting himself  to  the  polar  current  and  letting  it 
carry  him  along  its  course.  The  wise  business 
man  commits  himself  in  the  same  way  to  the 
great  current  of  human  need  and  makes  himself 
a  laborer  together  with  God.  Indeed,  there  are 
many  ways  in  which  the  moral  end  of  the  indus- 
trial order  is  reached  through  unconscious  or  even 
unwilling  instruments,  as  though  with  a  sort  of 
providential  irony.  Many  a  man  who  is  involved 
in  business  affairs  is  quite  unconscious  that  he  is 
performing  any  social  service;   he  may  even  be 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  319 

attempting  to  get  the  better  of  the  social  world,  or 
to  do  it  a  wrong ;  yet  the  principle  of  service  often 
utilizes  the  self-interested  or  rapacious  spirit,  and 
makes  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  it,  so  that  an 
undertaking  devised  for  the  meanest  ends  is  over- 
ruled in  its  intention  and  contributes  finally  to  the 
general  good. 

Still  more  noteworthy  than  this  ministry  of  ser- 
vice, consciously  or  unconsciously  fulfilled,  is  a 
certain  distinctively  ethical  quality  which  may  be 
observed  in  the  business  world.  It  is  quite  true 
that  the  prevailing  standards  of  industrial  life  fail 
in  many  of  the  finer  and  tenderer  traits  of  social 
morality,  but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  a  certain 
moral  code,  with  characteristics  of  its  own,  exists 
in  business  affairs  and  demands  of  business  men 
the  most  scrupulous  conformity.  Business  life  is 
often  harsh  and  even  merciless  in  its  methods,  but 
it  makes  much  of  such  qualities  as  truth,  honor, 
fidelity,  and  loyalty.  In  fact,  when  one  looks 
below  the  surface  of  business  life,  it  is  most  im- 
pressive to  .observe  that  its  very  existence  and 
continuance  depend  on  certain  moral  assumptions, 
and  that  it  trains  men  in  some  ethical  qualities 
which  do  not  seem  to  be  developed  in  the  same 
degree  anywhere  else.  People  who  are  proposing 
to  reform  social  morality  are  not  infrequently  defi- 
cient in  certain  virtues  which  are  absolutely  funda- 
mental in  commercial  life.  The  reformers  are  apt 
to  classify  as  the  highest  of  moral  traits  the  softer 
sentiments  of  sympathy,  generosity  and  self-sacri- 


320      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

fice,  but  they  are  not  always  scrupulous  in  measur- 
ing words  and  in  discharging  business  obligations; 
men,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  business  world  are 
often  limited  in  their  moral  horizon,  and  slow  in 
their  moral  emotions,  but  they  are  the  chief  agents 
in  maintaining  certain  of  the  most  elementary  of 
social  virtues.  For  multitudes  of  such  men  the 
law  of  the  good  life  is  practically  bounded  by  the 
maintenance  of  their  credit  and  the  speaking  of 
the  truth.  Thus  it  happens  that  business  transac- 
tions of  vast  dimensions  are  determined  by  a  word 
or  even  by  a  sign,  and  that  vast  systems  of  com- 
munication are  trusted  for  their  security  to  the 
absolute  fidelity  of  some  obscure  servant  at  the 
telegraph  table  or  the  railway  switch.  The  more 
elaborate  business  becomes  the  more  dependent 
it  is  on  these  moral  qualities.  More  fidelity  and 
sobriety  are  required  of  the  motorman  than  of  the 
horse-car  driver ;  greater  trustworthiness  of  the 
modern  mechanic  than  of  the  hand-worker  whom 
he  succeeds.  For  the  vast  majority  of  workers  in 
the  business  world  it  is  better  capital  to  be  morally 
incorruptible  than  to  be  intellectually  clever.  The 
first  question  which  most  employers  desire  to  ask 
concerning  a  person  seeking  employment  is  not : 
Is  he  shrewd,  unscrupulous,  pliant  ?  but :  Is  he  of 
clean  character,  can  he  be  trusted,  does  he  drink } 
So  far,  at  least,  the  moral  life  has  become  a  dis- 
tinct element  in  the  industrial  problem,  and  must 
be  reckoned  with  in  any  organization  of  industry 
which    intends   to   meet   the   needs   of   the    age. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  321 

Modern  business  is  not,  as  it  is  so  often  pictured, 
the  work  of  a  horde  of  pirates  and  wreckers  watch- 
ing for  a  chance  to  entrap  and  despoil  the  unwary ; 
it  is  much  more  like  the  legitimate  traffic  of  the 
high  seas,  where  there  are  many  perils  of  storm 
and  collision,  and  many  disasters  wrought  by  treach- 
ery or  rashness,  but  where  on  the  whole  strong  men 
are  trained  and  the  work  of  the  world  is  bravely 
done. 

In  spite,  then,  of  the  insidious  temptations  in 
which  the  world  of  industry  abounds,  the  spirit  and 
intention  of  business  life  have  some  contact  with 
the  spirit  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  law  of 
service  which  he  announces  for  his  disciples  is  not 
a  wholly  unknown  principle  in  the  world  of  com- 
petitive trade.  It  governs  the  organization  of 
industry  regarded  as  a  whole,  and  it  tests  great 
numbers  of  individual  lives  even  when  they  are 
unconscious  of  its  judgment.  What  then  be-, 
comes  the  duty  of  the  follower  of  Jesus  in  his 
relation  to  the  industrial  world  ?  His  duty  is,  not 
to  deny  himself  this  way  of  expressing  the  spirit 
of  service,  or  to  permit  himself  scepticism  concern- 
ing the  possibility  of  such  expression,  but  to  give 
himself  with  confidence  and  joy  to  his  business 
affairs  as  to  that  opportunity  for  the  Christian  life 
which  lies  nearest  to  his  hands.  The  problem  of 
the  Christian  in  the  world  is  not  to  escape  from 
the  world,  or  to  be  on  his  guard  against  the  world, 
but  to  overcome  the  world.  Confronted  by  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world,  he  does  not  hide  from 

Y 


322      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

their  temptation,  but  rebukes  the  tempter  and  pro- 
ceeds to  rule  the  world  through  serving  it.  He  con- 
verts, as  the  book  of  Revelation  says,  the  kingdom 
of  this  world  into  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of 
his  Christ.^ 

Here  is  a  test  which  any  man  may  apply  to 
his  own  business  life.  Am  I,  in  my  own  place 
and  degree,  moved  by  the  spirit  of  service.^  Am 
I  contributing  to  that  general  movement  of  indus- 
try which  lifts  and  ameliorates  the  life  of  my 
time ;  or  am  I,  on  the  other  hand,  either  a  social 
parasite  or  a  social  highwayman  ?  Am  I  so  pro- 
ducing, distributing,  administering,  as  to  be  a 
laborer  together  with  God ;  or  am  I  thwarting  the 
generosity  of  nature  and  fattening  on  the  misfor- 
tunes of  the  weak  ?  These  are  hard  questions  for 
many  men,  corrupted  by  the  passion  of  commercial- 
ism or  by  the  opportunity  for  gain ;  but  they  are 
questions  which  for  the  vast  majority  of  plodding 
business  lives  lead  to  the  restoration  of  self-respect 
and  hope.  Great  numbers  of  such  persons  are 
sorely  disheartened  and  perplexed  by  the  incon- 
sistency which  appears  to  exist  between  devotion 
to  their  business  and  loyalty  to  their  Christ.  They 
want  to  be  followers  of  Jesus,  but  they  have  to 
struggle  for  a  living  in  the  world  of  industry,  and 
their  religion  and  business,  their  worship  and 
work,  seem  hopelessly  set  apart.  This  is  the  spir- 
itual struggle  which  in  earlier  ages  drove  thou- 
sands of  conscientious  souls  into  the  monastic  life. 
1  Rev.  xi.  15. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    ORDER  323 

They  could  not  find  the  way  to  be  at  once  about 
their  own  business  and  about  their  Father's  busi- 
ness. What  is  it  that  can  restore  the  sense  of 
unity  to  such  divided  lives  ?  It  is  the  spirit  of 
service.  To  be  able  to  look  up  out  of  the  dust 
and  uncleanness  of  the  business  world  and  hon- 
estly say,  "  I  am  here  as  one  that  serveth ;  I 
am  not  being  ministered  unto,  but  I  am  minister- 
ing ;  I  accept  my  business  responsibilities  and  my 
business  limitations  as  indicating  the  place  in  this 
world  where  I  am  wanted,  and  the  work  in  this 
world  which  I  am  called  to  do,"  —  that  is  what 
gives  to  many  an  obscure  and  tempted  life  its 
tranquillity,  significance,  and  dignity.  The  soldier 
in  the  thick  of  the  battle  does  not  expect  to 
know  the  whole  plan  of  the  campaign,  nor  has  he 
enlisted  for  any  dainty  service.  He  is  set  in  his 
own  place,  perhaps  alone  on  the  skirmish  line, 
perhaps  in  the  solid  front  of  the  main  body,  per- 
haps, like  the  centurion  of  the  gospel,  as  a  man 
of  authority  having  soldiers  under  him,  but  in 
any  case  with  the  movement  of  the  whole  army 
depending  at  one  point  on  him.  When  he  is  thus 
in  the  midst  of  active  warfare  he  is  just  where  a 
trained  soldier  desires  to  be,  and  he  gives  his  life 
to  his  work  with  a  high  and  solemn  joy. 

Is  such  a  figure  of  speech  merely  a  preposterous 
idealization  of  the  scramble  and  greed  of  the  world 
of  industry  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  precisely  such 
a  campaign  of  human  ingenuity  and  skill,  enlisted 
to  subdue  and  utilize  the  forces  of  nature,  which 


324      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL   QUESTION 

industrial  life  in  reality  represents ;  and  it  is  in 
such  a  field  of  service  that  the  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ  finds  his  opportunity.  Base  strata- 
gems and  barbarous  methods  still  abound  in  the 
campaign  of  industrial  war  and  have  their  inevi- 
table consequences  in  stirring  disloyalty  and  revo- 
lution in  the  ranks ;  but  these  abuses  of  industrial 
opportunity  only  serve  to  indicate  what  the  task 
jof  the  follower  of  Jesus  must  be.  The  Chris- 
Ttian  man  in  the  business  world  is  not  bewildered 
by  its  confusion  or  overcome  by  its  temptations. 
He  is  held  to  his  post  by  the  spirit  of  service.  He 
looks  at  business  affairs  from  above,  and  per- 
ceives beneath  their  strenuous  competitions  the 
signs  of  a  possible  brotherhood  of  industrial  peace. 
He  approaches  industrial  problems  from  within, 
convinced  that  any  economic  millennium  must  be 
reached,  first  of  all,  through  the  consecrated  ini- 
tiative of  competent  individuals.  Thus,  in  the 
world  of  business  he  sees  one  of  the  most  effective 
agencies  for  perpetuating  the  teaching  of  Jesus, — 
a  place  where  integrity,  fidelity,  patience,  thrift 
and  consistency  have  immediate  justification  and 
large  utility.  He  is  alert  for  every  sign  of  a  more 
just  organization  of  industry,  but  he  is  equally 
alert  to  make  the  most  of  those  moral  opportuni- 
ties which  are  already  in  his  hands.  He  views  the 
economic  world  with  hope  and  his  fellow-men  with 
faith,  because  he  approaches  both  in  the  spirit 
of  love. 

Is  such  a  habit  of  mind  extremely  rare  in  ii\-i 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ORDER  32$ 

dustrial  life?  Have  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
been  so  persuasively  presented  by  the  devil  to 
this  generation  that  business  men  have  as  with 
one  consent  fallen  down  and  worshipped  him  ? 
On  the  contrary,  behind  the  insatiable  and  un- 
scrupulous commercialism  which  disfigures  the 
face  of  modern  industry  there  is  a  great  mass  of 
faithful  life  doing  the  real  work  of  the  world  with 
unobserved  and  untempted  devotion.  The  busi- 
ness world  is  like  a  building  whose  front  is  defaced 
by  such  conspicuously  bad  work  that  the  whole 
structure  seems  to  totter.  Fortunately,  however, 
the  columns  which  support  the  whole  are  undis- 
turbed. There  may  be  grave  reasons  for  shame 
that  the  building  is  not  more  consistent  or  beau- 
tiful, but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  will 
fall.  The  pillars  of  modern  industrial  life  are 
securely  set  in  the  moral  stability  of  the  vast 
majority  of  business  lives.  Millions  of  such  per- 
sons, as  they  scrupulously  discharge  their  business 
obligations,  are  meeting  the  demand  of  Jesus, 
"Whosoever  would  be  first  among  you  shall  be 
your  servant "  ;  ^  and  as  they  stoop  to  their  ob- 
scure duties  are  obedient  to  his  example,  *'  If 
I  then,  the  Lord  and  the  Master,  have  washed 
your  feet,  ye  also  ought  to  wash  one  another's 
feet. "2  The  Christian  problem  of  the  industrial 
world  is  to  multiply  lives  like  these.  If  any  revo- 
lution in  the  industrial  order  is  to  overthrow 
the  existing  economic  system,  the  new  order  must 

1  Matt.  XX.  27.  *  John  xiii.  14. 


326      JESUS   CHRIST  AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

depend  for  its  permanence  on  the  principles  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus ;  but  if  the  principles  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  should  come  to  control  the  exist- 
ing economic  system,  a  revolution  in  the  industrial 
order  would  seem  to  be  unnecessary. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   CORRELATION   OF   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS 

33«auge  5  libe,  ge  sfjall  Wot  also. 

We  have  considered  several  of  the  modern  social 
questions  under  the  form  of  concentric  circles  en- 
vironing the  individual  life.  The  radius  of  per- 
sonal inquiry  is  prolonged  until  it  reaches,  first 
the  problem  of  the  family,  then  that  of  wealth  and 
poverty,  and  finally  that  of  the  industrial  order;  and 
the  area  of  each  problem  in  succession  is  seen  to  be 
an  essential  part  of  a  more  comprehensive  problem 
with  larger  circumference  and  content.  This  figure 
of  speech,  however,  though  convenient  for  consecu- 
tive chapters  and  entirely  justified  in  point  of  fact, 
gives  by  no  means  an  adequate  picture  of  the  real 
relationship  among  the  various  social  questions. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  problem  of  the  family 
expands  as  one  considers  it  until  it  is  seen  to  be 
in  large  part  a  question  of  the  uses  of  wealth  or 
the  effects  of  poverty ;  it  is  true  again  that  wealth 
and  poverty  cannot  be  dealt  with  as  independent 
or  fixed  conditions,  but  must  be  interpreted  in 
terms  of  economic  organization,  progress,  and 
reform  ;  yet  it  is  not  less  true  that  these  outer 
circles  of  social  relations  change  under  our  hands 
327 


328      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

into  the  inner  problems,  so  that  the  radius  which 
measures  them  contracts  as  easily  as  it  has  been 
prolonged.  The  industrial  agitation,  for  example, 
is  but  one  form  of  the  revolt  of  the  poor  against 
the  rich ;  the  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty  are 
alike  in  threatening  the  existence  of  domestic 
ideals  and  of  family  seclusion  ;  the  programme 
of  the  socialist  forces  us  to  reconsider,  first,  the 
distribution  of  private  property,  and  then  the  na- 
ture and  place  of  the  family  group. 

Thus  the  relation  of  the  social  questions  with 
each  other  is  not  that  of  mere  sequence  or  ex- 
pansion; it  is  one  of  mutual  dependence  and 
transferability.  Each  problem  which  we  have 
considered  turns  out  to  be,  in  one  or  another 
aspect,  another  problem  in  disguise,  and  it  be- 
comes impossible  to  speak  of  any  one  as  wholly 
cause  or  as  wholly  effect.  Shall  we  say,  for  in- 
stance, that  it  is  the  ill-ordered  and  ambitious 
home  which  leads  to  poverty,  or  shall  we  say  that 
it  is  the  strain  of  poverty  which  shatters  the  peace 
of  the  home.?  Is  it  the  industrial  order  which 
creates  the  sins  of  the  rich,  or  is  it  the  unscrupu- 
lous rich  who  pervert  the  industrial  order?  In 
neither  case  can  we  affirm  that  at  one  point  the 
social  malady  invariably  begins  and  that  all  other 
symptoms  come  of  contagion.  Each  problem  may 
begin  anywhere.  The  diseases  which  we  have  con- 
sidered are  epidemic  rather  than  contagious.  Lack 
of  industrial  opportunity  may  involve,  first,  poverty, 
and  then  the  shattering  of  the  home.     An  ambi- 


CORRELATION  OF  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS      329 

tious  home  may  lead  first  to  wealth  and  then  to 
industrial  crookedness.  In  short,  we  come  upon 
a  relationship  analogous  to  that  which  has  been 
discovered  to  exist  between  the  various  forces  of 
the  physical  world.  What  once  appeared  to  be 
the  isolated  and  disconnected  action  of  heat,  light, 
motion,  or  electricity,  is  now  associated  with  all 
other  physical  forces  under  the  doctrine  of  correla- 
tion. I  strike  two  stones  together  and  the  motion 
is  converted  into  heat  or  into  light.  I  rub  my  seal- 
ing-wax and  the  motion  is  converted  into  electric- 
ity. I  change  heat  into  light  in  the  lime  light ; 
heat  into  electricity  in  the  electric  light ;  and 
finally,  electricity  into  Hght  and  heat  and  motion 
in  that  wonderful  combination  of  discoveries  which 
has  become  familiar  in  the  electric  railway.  Here 
is  the  most  fruitful  doctrine  of  modern  science. 
The  varied  modes  of  action  in  the  physical  world 
are  not  to  be  interpreted  or  utilized  in  isolation ; 
they  are  convertible,  interpenetrating,  correlated, 
Something  like  this  is  the  truth  which  under- 
lies the  whole  series  of  the  social  questions.  For 
practical  convenience,  each  may  be  hypothetically 
isolated ;  there  may  be  specialists  in  charity  or  in 
economic  reform,  and  even  specialists  in  some  sub- 
section of  one  social  problem,  such  as  charity  for 
children,  or  trades-unionism  ;  there  may  be  special 
organizations  for  divorce-reform  or  the  building 
of  dwellings  or  the  promotion  of  cooperation  ;  yet, 
in  all  this  diversity  of  operations,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  these  varied  enterprises  are  funda- 


330      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

mentally  correlated  and  convertible  social  forces.* 
The  gentle  charity-visitor  begins  her  apparently 
simple  task  of  relieving  some  destitute  home,  and 
suddenly  finds  herself  confronted  by  other  social 
problems  which  seem  quite  beyond  her  capacity 
to  solve.  The  real  question  presented  to  her  turns 
out,  perhaps,  to  be  one  of  domestic  cruelty,  involv- 
ing a  decision  on  her  part  concerning  the  unity 
of  the  family ;  or,  more  probably,  the  destitution 
which  she  is  called  to  relieve  is  but  a  sign  of  irregu- 
lar employment,  for  which  the  permanent  remedy 
is,  not  alms,  but  work.  Thus  the  problem  of  relief 
is  abruptly  transformed  into  that  of  domestic  integ- 
rity or  into  the  complex  economic  question  of  the 
glut  of  labor ;  and  the  kindly  visitor  to  the  poor  is 
bewildered  as  she  perceives  the  scope  and  relations 
of  her  lightly  assumed  task.  Or,  again,  the  judi- 
cious philanthropist,  applying  himself  to  improving 
the  dwellings  of  the  poor,  discovers  that  the  first 
principle  of  this  new  science  lies  —  as  we  have 
already  observed  —  not  in  generosity  or  charity, 
but  in  provision  for  domestic  seclusion  and  for 
economic  independence.  Many  such  enterprises 
have  failed  because  the  poor  prefer  a  home,  how- 
ever squalid,  to  a  barrack,  however  convenient; 
and  many  other  such  enterprises  have  failed  be- 
cause the  poor  have  declined  to  be  even  generously 
patronized   or   deprived   of  liberty.      Wisdom  in 

1  In  the  same  sense,  Professor  Clerk-Maxwell  describes  what  he 
calls  the  **  cross-fertilization  of  the  sciences."  (lies  ;  Flame,  Elec- 
tricity and  the  Camera,  1899,  p.  74.) 


CORRELATION  OF  THE  SOCIAL   QUESTIONS         33 1 

this  apparently  detached  form  of  philanthropy 
comes  of  recognizing  the  correlation  of  the  social 
questions. 

The  doctrine  which  thus  issues  from  our  con- 
siderations appears,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  its 
first  statement  to  be  a  somewhat  disheartening 
truth.  If  it  is  true  that  no  social  question  can  be 
thoroughly  interpreted  without  involving  one  in 
remote  and  often  much  more  comprehensive  ques- 
tions, how  can  one  hope  to  reach  any  satisfying 
conclusion .?  Who  can  deal  adequately  with  all 
these  correlated  aspects  of  social  life }  When  one 
finds  some  special  and  limited  inquiry  ramifying 
into  so  many  complex  considerations  of  social 
philosophy,  is  he  not  naturally  tempted  to  abandon 
a  task  which  he  has  neither  the  time  nor  the  capac- 
ity to  complete } 

Certainly,  one  must  answer,  there  is  much  in 
such  reflections  which  is  likely  to  check  enthu- 
siasm and  even  to  suggest  despondency.  When 
one  comes  to  realize  the  dimensions  and  many- 
sidedness  of  the  special  problem  with  which  he 
is  concerned,  he  will  certainly  approach  it  with 
less  assurance  and  be  less  certain  that  a  com- 
plete and  final  solution  of  it  is  at  hand.  It  is, 
however,  precisely  this  reserve  and  prudence, 
and  the  wholesome  loss  of  self-confidence  which 
they  involve,  which  many  social  reformers  of  the 
present  day  most  urgently  need  to  cultivate. 
Each  social  question  has  become,  to  many  zealous 
advocates,   of    such    engrossing    interest   that  it 


332      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

seems  to  them  to  hold  the  key  of  social  ameliora- 
tion. We  are  met  on  every  side  by  social  panaceas 
and  social  solutions.  There  appears  to  be  in  many 
minds  a  sense  of  obligation  to  possess  some  spe- 
cific for  social  diseases  or  to  know  some  short  cut 
to  social  prosperity.  "  If  my  plan,"  said  one  expo- 
nent of  a  problem  of  general  redemption,  "is  not 
sufficient,  what  is  yours  .^ "  as  though  it  were  the 
duty  of  any  serious-minded  man  to  have  some 
universal  remedy  to  propose. 

There  is  a  splendid  earnestness  in  this  eager 
devotion.  It  proceeds,  for  the  most  part,  not  from 
intellectual  conceit,  but  from  moral  enthusiasm. 
Something,  it  seems  to  these  philanthropists, 
must  be  done  and  done  at  once,  to  make  a  better 
world,  and  they  gallantly  apply  themselves  to  the 
cleansing  of  that  little  corner  of  the  great  social 
order  upon  which  the  windows  of  their  minds 
happen  to  look.  Their  social  outlook  creates  their 
social  creed.  The  special  reform  with  which  they 
concern  themselves  seems  to  them  comprehensive 
and  sufficient.  If  the  world  would  but  accept  their 
remedy,  —  single  tax,  prohibition,  nationalization  of 
industries,  Malthusianism,  old  age  pensions,  non- 
resistance,  communal  ownership,  or  some  other  of 
the  panaceas  so  earnestly  commended, — the  whole 
constitution  of  modern  society  would  be  estab- 
lished in  permanent  health.  It  is  a  gallant  and, 
as  we  shall  in  a  few  moments  point  out,  a  fruit- 
ful enthusiasm,  which  is  infinitely  more  contribu- 
tory to   social   progress  than  critical  cynicism  or 


CORRELATION  OF  THE  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS         333 

indifference.  Yet  it  remains  true  that  the  rarest 
virtue  in  the  reformer  is  the  gift  of  broad  and 
patient  wisdom.  The  very  intensity  of  his  vision 
involves,  as  a  rule,  a  corresponding  narrowness  of 
view.  His  eye  is  fixed  on  a  single  end,  and  he 
takes  little  account  of  outlying  or  qualifying  cir- 
cumstances. What  he  needs  to  appreciate,  then, 
is  the  correlation  of  the  social  questions,  —  the 
many,  and  often  remote,  conditions  which  affect 
and  sometimes  transform  the  problem  immediately 
before  him,  and  the  unexpected  allies  which  may 
come  to  his  aid  while  quite  unconscious  of  serv- 
ing him. 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  expansion  and 
transformation  of  one  social  question  into  other 
forms  is  to  be  found  in  the  later  developments  of 
the  so-called  temperance  cause.  Here  is  a  social 
movement  which  has  been  very  generally  regarded 
as  an  isolated  and  specialized  work.  A  few  ob- 
vious remedies  have  seemed  sufficient  to  meet  the 
portentous  evil  of  the  drink  habit.  The  pledge  of 
abstinence,  the  prohibition  of  sale,  the  physiologi- 
cal instruction  of  children,  the  constant  agitation 
of  public  sentiment, — these  and  kindred  methods 
of  direct  reform  have  appeared  to  bound  the 
sphere  of  temperance  work.  More  and  more,  how- 
ever, it  has  become  evident  that,  beyond  these 
specific  agencies  of  reform,  there  are,  on  every  side 
of  the  temperance  question,  influences  and  move- 
ments which  are  among  its  most  threatening 
enemies  or  its  most  powerful  allies.     Domestic, 


334      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

economic,  even  psychological  and  racial,  con- 
ditions are  intimately  correlated  with  the  prob- 
lem of  drink.  Is  it  drink  which  destroys  the 
family,  or  is  it  the  disordered  family  life  which 
tempts  to  drink?  Is  the  drink  habit  a  morbid 
passion,  or  is  it  in  many  cases  a  normal  and 
healthy  craving  for  recreation  which  drives  men 
to  the  saloon?  Is  it  true,  as  one  distinguished 
economist  has  said,  that  the  thirst  for  liquor 
among  working-men  is  not  so  much  a  question  of 
drink  as  of  food,  and  that  to  know  why  a  poor  man 
drinks  one  has  but  to  look  in  his  dinner-pail  ?  Is 
it  drink  which  robs  men  of  their  earnings,  or  is  it 
the  fluctuation  of  earnings  which  drives  men  to 
drink  ?  Would  the  drink  traffic  be  less  pernicious 
if  wisely  converted  into  a  municipal  industry? 
Is  the  moral  tone  of  the  community  weakened  by 
prohibitory  legislation  ?  How  does  it  happen  that 
the  wine-drinking  peoples  of  southern  Europe  are 
temperate,  and  the  water-drinking  Anglo-Saxons 
intemperate?  These  are  but  indications  of  the 
varied  inquiries  which  now  confront  any  one  who 
looks  below  the  surface  of  the  problem  of  temper- 
ance. What  seemed  to  be  a  detached  question 
concerning  a  personal  habit  is  in  fact  correlated 
with  almost  every  movement  of  social  or  economic 
reform.  The  most  effective  attack  upon  the  drink 
habit  may  come  of  some  flank  movement,  in  the 
interest  of  better  homes,  or  healthy  amusement, 
or  regular  work,  or  nourishing  food,  or  State  con- 
trol, or  the  education  of  a  new  and  superior  desire. 


CORRELATION    OF   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS         335 

A  similar  extension  and  ramification  might  be 
observed  in  any  one  of  the  social  questions  of  the 
present  time.  Each  has  a  part  in  the  solution  of 
all  the  rest,  and  all  are  in  a  measure  dependent  on 
the  progress  of  each.  Playgrounds,  as  the  mayor 
of  Boston  has  lately  pointed  out,  may  be  regarded 
as  an  offset  to  penal  institutions,  and  gymnastics 
may  reduce  the  expenditure  of  prisons,  so  that  it 
may  be  even  urged  that  "  crime  in  our  large  cities 
is  to  a  great  extent  simply  a  question  of  athletics." 
No  social  problem  can,  in  any  absolute  sense,  be 
dealt  with  alone.  It  is  but  one  aspect  of  the  gen- 
eral evolution  of  social  habits  and  ideals.  One  of 
the  most  observant  of  American  economists  has 
remarked,  "When  I  hear  any  one  bring  forward 
a  solution  of  the  social  question,  I  move  to  ad- 
journ." There  is,  he  means  to  say,  no  such  thing 
as  the  complete  and  immediate  solution  of  spe- 
cial problems  which  are  inextricably  involved  in 
the  general  progress  of  social  evolution.  The 
whole  social  body  moves  together  if  it  moves  at 
all.  The  correlation  of  the  social  questions  gives 
to  the  scattered  movements  of  social  reform  a 
unity  and  interdependence  so  vast  and  complex 
that  one  must  dismiss  the  notion  of  a  panacea  for 
each  separate  social  ill,  and  content  himself  with 
an  imperfect  and  contributory  service. 

Does  it,  however,  follow  from  this  view  of  prog- 
ress that  one  must  turn  back  to  his  own  special 
problem  with  the  despondent  sense  that  little  can 
be  done  ?    Is  the  doctrine  of  correlation  in  reality  a 


336      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

disheartening  truth?  On  the  contrary,  the  enlarge- 
ment  of  relations,  and  the  convertibility  of  power 
thus  acknowledged,  give  dignity  and  significance 
to  many  a  partial  and  discouraging  effort  for  so- 
cial reform.  Modesty,  indeed,  the  doctrine  of  cor- 
relation teaches.  One  must  recognize  that  the 
work  he  has  undertaken  is  much  more  varied  and 
comprehensive  than  it  at  first  appeared  to  him  to 
be.  To  find,  however,  one's  own  limited  plan  of 
social  service  reenforced  by,  and  in  its  turn  reen- 
forcing,  other  and  larger  plans,  is  to  regain  self- 
respect  and  hope  where  one  had  felt  discouraged 
and  alone.  The  solitary  sentinel  remembers  that 
the  army  is  at  his  back ;  the  hard-pressed  bat- 
talion is  aware  that  the  same  battle  is  going  on 
all  along  the  line ;  that  defeat  at  one  point  may 
contribute  to  the  general  victory,  and  that  the  ef- 
fective force  is  often  strengthened  by  new  and 
unanticipated  allies.  The  movement  against  the 
drink  habit,  for  instance,  of  which  we  have  just 
spoken,  gets  new  vitality  and  importance  as  it 
becomes  associated  with  the  whole  movement 
of  industrial  and  moral  progress.  Temperance 
reform  was  in  grave  danger  of  being  side-tracked 
from  the  main  line  of  modern  interest,  and  given 
over  to  the  politicians  and  the  pious.  It  is  now 
seen  to  be  one  aspect  of  the  comprehensive  social 
movement  of  the  time,  and,  to  many  careful  ob- 
servers, the  problem  of  economic  progress  appears 
to  be  in  very  large  degree  dependent  upon  the 
problem  of  drink.     The  most  judicious  leader  of 


CORRELATION   OF   THE  SOCIAL    QUESTIONS         33/ 

the  labor  agitation  in  Great  Britain,  on  being 
asked  why  he  advocated  total  abstinence,  answered 
that  it  was  for  the  economic  power  which  could  be 
in  this  way  so  easily  saved.  He  believed  in  and 
practised  temperance,  that  is  to  say,  not  primarily 
for  the  sake  of  temperance,  but  for  the  sake  of 
labor  reform.  He  was,  indeed,  but  repeating  what 
Professor  Cairn es  years  ago  pointed  out,  that  the 
future  of  the  laboring  classes  might  be  prophesied 
by  an  examination  of  the  excise  returns.  Econo- 
mists, that  is  to  say,  and  labor  agitators  join  with 
physiologists  and  moralists  in  calling  new  atten- 
tion to  the  social  significance  of  the  drink  habit; 
and  the  advocate  of  temperance,  instead  of  being, 
as  in  the  past,  in  some  degree  isolated  in  his  re- 
form and  distrusted  as  a  fanatic,  finds  himself, 
through  the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  correla- 
tion, in  the  very  centre  of  the  main  stream  of 
social  reform. 

The  same  enlargement  of  function  and  diver- 
sity of  usefulness  may  be  discovered  in  any  form 
of  honest  social  service,  and  make  of  the  doc- 
trine of  correlation,  not  a  discouraging,  but  a 
highly  stimulating,  teaching.  Suppose,  for  in- 
stance, that  a  few  generous-minded  persons  organ- 
ize on  an  intelligent  plan  a  working-men's  club. 
They  have,  in  all  probability,  no  very  definite  idea 
of  the  outcome  of  their  enterprise,  but  are  moved 
by  the  desire  to  offer  education  and  entertainment 
to  less  fortunate  men.  As  their  fraternal  work 
proceeds   in  its  unambitious  service,    how   shall 


338      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

it  be  classified  among  the  social  movements 
of  the  time?  From  one  point  of  view  it  has  a 
place  in  the  temperance  campaign,  for  it  provides 
a  genuine  substitute  for  the  attractions  of  the 
saloon ;  from  another  point  of  view  it  is  a  contri- 
bution to  the  labor  movement,  for  it  gives  to  hand- 
workers material  for  study  and  liberty  of  discussion ; 
from  still  another  point  of  view  it  is  a  peacemaker 
between  social  classes,  for  rich  and  poor  find  in  it 
a  real  democracy  and  come  to  a  more  just  under- 
standing of  each  other's  ideals  and  faults.  It  may 
even  make  for  the  stability  of  the  home,  though  it 
seems  to  withdraw  its  members  from  their  homes. 
An  intelligent  working-man  in  such  a  club,  being 
asked  whether  his  wife  did  not  wish  him  at  home 
in  the  evening,  answered,  "Yes;  but  she  says  that 
when  I  am  at  home  I  am  much  more  interesting." 
One  thing  such  a  club  resolutely  denies  that  it  is 
—  a  form  of  charity ;  yet  it  precisely  expresses 
that  acceptable  charity  which  brings,  not  alms,  but 
friendship.  One  great  human  interest  such  a 
club  as  a  rule  excludes  —  the  discussion  of  reli- 
gion ;  yet  its  rule  of  conduct  is  that  which  Jesus 
himself  laid  down  as  one-half  of  religion,  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Thus  this 
unassuming  undertaking  has  its  part  in  at  least  a 
half-dozen  of  the  social  movements  of  the  time, 
and  may  perhaps  be  contributing  more  to  effective 
philanthropy  and  to  undefiled  religion  than  many 
an  organization  definitely  created  in  their  names. 
Or  —  to  turn  the  same,  story  round— ^ suppose 


CORRELATION   OF  THE    SOCIAL  QUESTIONS         339 

that  an  employer,  ignorant  of  the  real  instincts 
and  ambitions  of  his  employees,  introduces  in  his 
business  a  spurious  though  well-intended  form  of 
generosity.  He  feels  a  touch  of  that  breeze  of 
industrial  fraternity  which  has  sprung  up  in  our 
time,  but  it  does  not  really  stir  his  nature  to  a  new 
life.  He  wants  to  keep  his  self-respect,  but  he 
wants  also  to  keep  his  profits.  He  looks,  there- 
fore, for  ways  of  combining  the  service  of  God  and 
the  service  of  Mammon.  Thus  he  may  seem  to 
himself  to  be  generous  when  he  is  in  fact  only 
patronizing.  He  provides  homes  for  his  employees, 
but  under  terms  which  limit  their  liberty ;  he  ad- 
justs wages  with  what  appears  to  be  liberality, 
but  under  conditions  which  irritate  and  restrict ; 
he  counsels  thrift  and  simplicity,  while  his  own 
domestic  life  remains  ostentatious  and  vulgar.  Is 
this  merely  a  commercial  phenomenon,  bounded 
by  the  business  in  which  master  and  man  meet } 
On  the  contrary,  this  half-hearted  service  has  its 
effect  all  along  the  line  of  the  social  movement, 
to  hinder  advance  and  to  create  distrust.  The 
instinct  of  the  home  in  working-people  protests 
against  a  home  that  is  not  one's  own ;  the  self- 
respect  of  the  wage-earner  refuses  to  be  patron- 
ized ;  the  commercial  maxims  of  the  employer 
cannot  teach  what  his  private  life  denies ;  finally, 
the  man  who  had  fancied  himself  earning  the  grati- 
tude due  to  a  generous  philanthropist  finds  himself, 
to  his  own  great  surprise,  responsible  for  industrial 
dissatisfaction  and  revolt, 


340       JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

Here,  then,  is  the  larger  teaching  of  the  doc- 
trine of  correlation.  There  is  in  the  modem 
social  world  no  detached  or  isolated  life,  and  no 
one  can  be  sure  at  precisely  what  point  his  life 
or  work  may  affect  the  life  or  work  of  the  com- 
munity. He  may  be  in  intention  serving  at  one 
point,  and  the  force  of  his  service  may  be  trans- 
formed into  quite  another  form  of  effectiveness ; 
or  he  may  be  quite  unconscious  that  he  has  any 
part  whatever  in  the  social  question,  while,  in  fact, 
he  has  made  himself  a  conspicuous  instigator  of 
social  revolution.  When  one  realizes  this  truth, 
he  turns,  with  a  new  courage  and  self-respect,  to 
the  special  form  of  service  which  immediately  in- 
vites him.  Any  honest  and  generous  work,  he 
sees,  may  count  in  unforeseen  and  surprising  ways. 
His  charity  may  fail  in  the  form  of  relief,  and  yet 
may  be  communicated  in  the  form  of  character; 
his  business  may  be  necessarily  businesslike,  and 
yet  may  be  wise  philanthropy.  The  scattered 
social  forces,  utilized  by  myriads  of  men,  are 
taken  up  into  the  comprehensive  unity  of  the 
social  movement,  so  that  each  separate  impulse 
is  transmitted  through  the  whole  organic  life. 

Such  is  the  correlation  of  the  social  questions ; 
and  when  we  turn  from  this  modern  and  scientific 
analogy  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  find 
the  same  truth  foreshadowed  in  many  striking 
ways.  No  inquiry  could  be  more  misleading  or 
superfluous  than  to  search  the  gospels  for  confir- 
mation of  the  principles  of  modern  science.     The 


CORRELATION   OF   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTlTJITS""   34 1 

harmonies  of  science  with  religion  are  in  this  sense 
as  unreal  and  fanciful  as  the  harmony  of  poetry 
with  chemistry,  or  of  art  with  politics.  Yet  as 
one  traces  the  correlations  of  social  activity  and 
the  transmission  of  social  power,  he  cannot  help 
recalling  the  reiterated  promises  of  Jesus  to  his 
disciples  that  the  humblest  tasks  performed  by 
them  might  become  effective  for  the  greatest  ends. 
"Whosoever,"  he  says,  "shall  give  to  drink  unto 
one  of  these  little  ones  a  cup  of  cold  water  only, 
...  he  shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward."  ^  "  Whoso 
shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  my  name 
receiveth  me."^  "Then  shall  the  King  say,  .  .  . 
Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  king- 
dom prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world :  for  .  .  .  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one 
of  these  my  brethren,  even  these  least,  ye  did  it 
unto  me."^  Jesus,  that  is  to  say,  dignifies  and 
transfigures  the  devotion  to  that  which  is  least, 
not  merely  by  the  promise  of  that  which  is  much 
as  its  future  reward,  but  by  the  assurance  that 
there  is  no  distinction  of  least  and  much,  that  the 
issues  of  the  kingdom  and  the  service  of  the  King 
may  be  determined  by  the  giving  of  the  cup  of 
water  and  by  the  care  of  the  little  child. 

Nor  is  it  in  terms  of  commendation  only  that 
this  teaching  of  the  conversion  of  social  forces 
is  set  forth.  Some  of  the  most  solemn  denuncia- 
tions of  Jesus  are  uttered  against  those  who  slight 
the  modest  opportunity  or  obstruct  the  insignifi- 

1  Matt.  X.  42.  2  Matt,  xviii.  5.  »  Matt.  xxv.  34,  40. 


342      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

cant  life.  With  great  detail  and  eloquent  reiter- 
ation he  describes  the  man  who  omits  to  care  for 
the  hungry,  the  naked,  and  the  sick,  and  perceives 
in  this  social  neglect  an  essential  disloyalty  to 
God.  "Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  .  .  .  Inas- 
much as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of  these  least,  ye 
did  it  not  unto  me."  ^  He  deals  with  the  mere 
obstructionist  in  social  life  as  one  who  is  in  reality 
thwarting  the  ends  of  the  kingdom  and  whose  life 
is  worse  than  wasted.  "Whoso  shall  cause  one 
of  these  little  ones  ...  to  stumble,  it  is  profitable 
for  him  that  a  great  millstone  should  be  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  that  he  should  be  sunk  in 
the  depth  of  the  sea."^  Even  the  words  which 
men  carelessly  utter,  Jesus  teaches,  are  correlated 
with  remote  issues  of  thought  and  conduct,  and 
affect  all  the  outer  circles  of  one's  social  life,  as 
the  ripples  from  a  stone  cast  into  a  still  lake  go 
circling  out  until  they  break  upon  the  distant 
shore.  "Every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak, 
they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment. For  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified, 
and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned."^ 
Jesus,  that  is  to  say,  announces  as  a  spiritual  prin- 
ciple the  same  quality  of  radiation  and  convertibil- 
ity in  moral  forces  which  we  have  considered  in 
terms  of  a  physical  analogy.  There  is  to  him  no 
detached  duty,  no  isolated  neglect,  no  lost  word. 
Each  is  transformed  into  new  shapes  of  utility  or 
new  occasions  of  offence,  and  each  may  come  at 

1  Matt.  XXV.  41,  45.  2  Matt,  xviii.  6.  *  Matt.  xii.  36,  37. 


CORRELATION   OF   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS      343 

last  to  be  the  test  of  the  whole  of  life  in  the  day 
of  judgment.  The  doctrine  of  correlation  is  a 
modern  statement  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  that 
the  fragmentary  service  of  the  least  of  his  breth- 
ren is  taken  up  into  the  unity  of  discipleship  to 
him. 

At  this  point,  however,  we  come  into  view  of  a 
further  aspect  of  this  physical  analogy  which  we 
have  left  thus  far  unnoticed,  and  which  is  not  with- 
out new  suggestiveness  when  applied  to  the  social 
world.  The  transmutation  of  physical  forces  and 
their  conservation  in  new  forms  indicate  to  the 
scientific  observer  that  he  is  observing,  not  intrin- 
sically different  phenomena,  but  various  manifesta- 
tions of  a  single  force.  We  cannot  properly  speak 
of  the  forces  of  nature.  Heat,  light,  magnetism 
and  the  rest  are  in  fact  only  the  temporary  ex- 
pressions of  one  pervasive  and  comprehensive 
force.  Behind  the  diversity  of  operations  in 
nature  lies  the  supreme  fact  of  the  unity  of 
nature,  whose  action  is  neither  originated  nor 
increased,  but  only  transmuted  and  conserved, 
by  the  forces  which  we  see.  The  fundamental 
belief  upon  which  physical  science  rests  is  the 
assurance  of  continuity  and  undiminished  effec- 
tiveness in  that  central  activity  which  in  the  trans- 
formations of  the  various  physical  forces  appears 
to  be  dissipated. or  destroyed. 

What  then,  one  goes  on  to  ask,  is  the  nature  of 
this  permanent  unity  of  power,  of  which  the  physi- 
cal forces  of  nature  are  transient  expressions  .•*    To 


344      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL    QUESTION 

this  question  the  teaching  of  physical  science  gives 
no  reply.  We  have  come  to  the  border  line  be- 
tween that  which  can  be  observed  in  nature  and 
that  which  must  be  inferred  to  be  at  the  heart  of 
nature,  and  we  pass  from  the  domain  of  physics 
to  that  of  metaphysics.  For  the  sake  of  clearness 
in  distinguishing  between  the  changeful  and  the 
permanent  aspects  of  physical  life,  science  has 
agreed  to  give  to  the  underlying  unity  of  force 
the  title  of  "  energy  " ;  yet  of  the  nature  of  this 
central  energy  science  makes  no  assertion  be- 
yond the  fact  of  its  manifestation  in  those  forces 
whose  action  we  observed.  Mr.  Spencer,  as  he 
reaches  this  central  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  force, 
approaches  it  in  language  which  reaches  almost 
a  lyric  strain  of  confession,  and  concludes  with 
words  not  unlike  those  of  a  theological  creed. 
"Deeper,"  he  says,  "than  demonstration  — 
deeper  even  than  definite  cognition  —  deep  as  the 
very  nature  of  mind,  is  the  postulate  at  which 
we  have  arrived."  "Amid  the  mysteries  which 
become  the  more  mysterious  the  more  they  are 
thought  about,  remains  the  one  absolute  certainty 
that  he  is  ever  in  the  presence  of  an  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Energy  from  which  all  things  proceed."  ^ 

Such  is  the  doctrine  of  energy  into  which  the 
doctrine  of  correlation  opens ;  and  as  we  have 
ventured  to  use  the  analogy  of  the  latter  doctrine 
to  illustrate  the  transformations  and  unity  of  social 

1  "First  Principles"  (Am.  Ed.),  Ch.  VI,  p.  192;  "Religion,  a 
Retrospect  and  Prospect,"  p.  35. 


CORRELATION   OF  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS      345 

service,  we  are  naturally  led  on  to  ask  the  final 
question  which  this  analogy  suggests.  Here  are 
these  various  forms  of  social  activity,  transmuted, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  the  most  surprising  ways  and 
with  undiminished  force  into  new  channels  of 
expression  and  effectiveness.  The  correlation  and 
conservation  of  the  social  movements  bind  together 
all  scattered  types  of  social  service  in  a  sense  of 
unity.  They  are  not  disconnected  undertakings, 
but  partial  manifestations  of  one  social  dynamic, 
which  moves  the  entire  mechanism  of  the  social 
order.  What,  then,  is  the  nature  of  this  unity 
which  thus  expresses  itself  in  all  these  changeful 
aspects  of  social  responsibility  ?  What  is  the  social 
energy  from  which  all  these  movements  which  we 
have  considered  may  be  believed  to  proceed  ? 

This  question  is  obviously  not  met  by  the  intrinsic 
difficulty  which  is  presented  in  the  case  of  the  phys- 
ical world.  There  is  in  social  life  no  chasm  to  be 
bridged  between  what  can  be  observed  and  meas- 
ured and  what  lies  absolutely  beyond  verification. 
The  social  movements  are  not  external  and  me- 
chanical changes ;  they  are  simply  phases  of 
human  life  and  history,  open  to  analysis  by  any 
one  who  can  interpret  the  motives  of  masses  of 
men.  In  short,  in  the  study  of  modern  society, 
we  are  moving  altogether  in  the  region  of  human 
motives  and  ideals,  where  the  social  energy  which 
stirs  the  whole  must  be  of  the  same  verifiable  qual- 
ity as  the  social  movements  which  it  utilizes.  An 
army  may  be  in  one  aspect  regarded  and  studied 


346      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

as  a  machine,  and  in  some  cases  the  more  per- 
fectly  mechanical  the  movement  of  an  army  is, 
the  better  it  fulfils  its  ends;  yet  there  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  recognizing  that  what  acts  like  a  machine 
is  after  all  an  instrument  and  expression  of  the 
commander's  will.  In  the  same  way,  the  social 
forces  of  philanthropy  and  reform  have  their  me- 
chanical laws  and  external  conditions ;  but  the 
social  energy  which  directs  and  unites  them  is  to 
be  sought  in  the  world  of  human  desires,  duties, 
reasonings,  and  hopes. 

When,  therefore,  we  ask  what  it  is  in  human  life 
which  has  inspired  the  extraordinary  range  and  di- 
versity of  the  modern  social  movements,  the  whole 
character  of  our  preceding  inquiries  indicates  the  re- 
ply. The  social  questions  are,  in  their  main  scope 
and  intent,  manifestations  of  the  moral  life  of  the 
time.  They  are  ethical  questions.  They  appear 
in  forms  which  are  political  or  industrial,  but  be- 
hind these  diversities  of  form  works  the  one  spirit 
—  Against  the  lust  of  the  flesh  there  rises  up  the  in- 
stinct of  chaste  love  and  creates  the  social  question 
rof  the  family;  against  the  lust  of  riches  there  appear 
tjie  emotions  of  benevolence  and  pity  and  create 
the  problem  of  charity ;  against  economic  injus- 
tice there  rises  up  the  hope  of  an  industrial  com- 
ifionwealth  and  creates  the  labor  question.  Thus 
there  is  a  mechanism  of  the  social  questions  and 
a  motive  power,  and  while  the  mechanism  may  be 
externally  adjusted  by  legislation  or  organization, 
the  motive  power  is  to  be  found  in  human  hearts 


CORRELATION   OF   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS      347 

and  wills.  The  social  questions  occur  simply  be- 
cause a  very  large  number  of  people  are  trying  in 
many  different  ways  to  do  what  is  right.  The 
moral  life  is  written  across  the  face  of  the  time 
in  the  language  of  the  social  questions.  The 
social  energy  of  the  modern  conscience  finds  its 
main  channel  of  expression  in  the  social  forces 
of  modern  reform. 

This  truth  of  the  fundamentally  ethical  character 
of  the  social  questions  has  repeatedly  presented 
itself  in  the  course  of  our  separate  considerations. 
Now,  however,  when  it  appears  once  more  as  the 
outcome  of  the  doctrine  of  correlation,  we  are  led 
to  observe  more  closely  its  implications  and  corol- 
laries. If  it  is  true  that  social  progress  is  but  the 
expression  of  moral  energy,  this  is  a  truth  of  the 
utmost  significance,  both  for  the  student  of  social 
questions  and  for  the  student  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

To  the  first  of  these  students  there  is  indicated 
the  one  absolutely  indispensable  element  in  all 
forms  of  social  service.  It  is  the  supply  and 
the  control  of  moral  motive-power.  The  social 
movements  of  the  time  have  become  organized 
on  such  a  scale  that  a  vast  amount  of  time  and 
attention  are  necessarily  devoted  to  the  admin- 
istration of  their  machinery.  Nothing,  however, 
is  more  purposeless  or  more  ludicrous  than  an 
elaborate  mechanism  which  has  not  power  enough 
to  do  its  work.  Social  power  *  uncontrolled  by 
well-ordered   mechanism   is,   it   is   true,  often  in- 


34^      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE    SOCIAL    QUESTION 

effective,  wasted,  or  dangerous,  like  steam  escap^ 
ing  from  ill-adjusted  valves ;  but  social  mechanism 
unprovided  with  moral  power  is  simply  dead 
routine  or  downright  self-deception,  like  a  ma- 
chine which  men  spend  their  lives  in  devising, 
and  which,  after  all,  will  not  move.  Here  is  the 
practical  peril  which  every  administrator  of  social 
reform  has  to  meet.  It  is  so  easy  to  get  involved 
in  the  machinery  which  one  has  perhaps  himself 
created,  so  easy  indeed  to  become  a  part  of  that  ma- 
chinery and  to  trust  to  its  automatic  effectiveness, 
that  it  sometimes  requires  a  positive  spiritual 
effort  to  remind  one's  self  that  the  only  justifica- 
tion of  a  social  machine  is  its  transmission  of  social 
energy.  A  charity  administrator  accomplishes  his 
round  of  inquiry  and  relief,  an  organizer  of  work- 
ingmen  gathers  the  whole  membership  of  a  trade 
into  his  union,  a  temperance  reformer  procures 
the  legislation  which  his  cause  seems  to  require, 
—  yet,  when  the  test  of  this  mechanical  activity 
arrives,  how  disheartening  its  results  often  seem 
to  be!  The  poor  remain  as  importunate  and  as 
ingeniously  deceitful  as  ever;  the  working-men, 
when  the  strain  is  put  upon  their  loyalty  and 
patience,  fall  away  from  the  organization  and  its 
creed ;  the  community  persists  in  behaving,  under 
the  best  of  liquor  laws,  much  as  it  did  when  there 
was  no  restraint.  Is  it  then  to  no  purpose  that 
poor-relief  and  labor-unions  and  temperance  laws 
are  so  laboriously  devised  and  sustained  ?  On  the 
contrary,  these  channels  of  organization  are  abso- 


CORRELATION   OF  THE  SOCIAL   QUESTIONS      349 

lutely  essential  both  to  control  and  to  utilize  the 
social  energy  which  they  receive.  The  wise  en- 
gineer, however,  is  aware  that  through  such  chan- 
nels is  to  flow  a  turbulent  stream  of  human 
emotion  and  desires,  which  has  its  sudden  floods 
and  ebbs,  and  for  whose  restraint  and  discipline 
he  must  provide.  Charity  administration,  in  judi- 
cious and  loving  hands,  checks  the  flood  of  mendi- 
cancy, finds  new  outlets  into  the  fields  of  industry, 
stirs  and  guides  the  motives  of  the  poor,  until  the 
stream  of  poverty,  broad  as  it  remains,  is  held  in 
check  by  the  channel  of  relief.  Labor  organiza- 
tion, to  be  under  control  when  the  stream  of 
passion  runs  high,  must  be  fortified  by  moral 
education  when  the  current  of  industrial  life  is 
calm.  Nothing  is  more  suicidal  in  such  move- 
ments than  to  trust  to  sudden  emotions  or  in- 
flaming words  or  elaborate  organization.  These 
sources  of  power  fail  as  suddenly  as  a  spring 
freshet  subsides,  and  leave  at  the  best  only  a  track 
of  destruction  behind.  Permanent  efficiency  pro- 
ceeds from  intelligence,  prudence  and  loyalty  cul- 
tivated in  tranquil  days  and  providing,  in  time  of 
strain,  an  even  and  trustworthy  supply  of  moral 
energy.  Temperance  reform  is  but  a  labor  of 
Sisyphus,  and  the  burden  it  desires  to  remove 
rolls  back  on  the  community  again,  unless  the 
agitation  is  consistently  directed,  not  so  much  to 
the  hampering  of  a  trade,  as  to  the  disciplining 
of  a  passion.  The  drink  habit  is  in  very  large 
degree  the  perversion  of  one  of  the  most  univer- 


350      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

sal  of  human  desires,  the  thirst  for  exhilaration, 
recreation,  and  joy,  and  to  remove  the  only  avail- 
able means  for  satisfying  this  normal  craving  with- 
out providing  adequate  substitutes,  is  like  blocking 
the  channel  where  a  stream  does  harm  without 
observing  how  many  new  fields  the  same  stream 
is  likely  to  devastate. 

Thus  in  every  social  question  the  problem  of 
guiding  and  directing  social  energy  lies  behind 
the  problem  of  developing  social  organization. 
The  first  inquiry  of  the  social  reformer  should 
be :  "  What  is  the  nature  of  the  special  emotion 
or  desire  or  appetite  with  which  I  am  now  called 
to  deal?  How  can  I  utilize  it,  educate  it,  and 
direct  it  to  its  proper  end  ? "  Here  is  the  key 
to  judicious  methods.  When  one  fairly  realizes 
that  he  is  concerned,  first  of  all,  not  with  ma- 
chinery, but  with  life,  not  with  "  cases,"  but  with 
people,  not  with  economic  schemes,  but  with 
the  passions,  hopes,  and  ideals  of  human  beings, 
then  his  ways  of  social  organization  will  become, 
not  less  painstaking,  but  more  sympathetic,  pru- 
dent, patient,  and  wise.  There  is  no  quality  in 
modern  life  more  beautiful,  or  indeed  more  he- 
roic, than  this  capacity  to  handle  social  machinery 
without  loss  of  moral  vitality  and  faith.  To  be 
from  day  to  day  an  official  and  still  to  remain 
merciful,  tender-hearted,  and  hopeful ;  to  be  a 
reformer,  without  loss  of  broad  sympathy  or  of 
hospitality  of  mind;  to  be  an  employer,  and  find 
within  the  field  of  industry  room  for  humanity, 


CORRELATION  OF  THE  SOCIAL    QUESTIONS      35 1 

democracy,  and  idealism ;  to  believe  in  a  cause, 
but  to  believe  still  more  in  the  courage,  strength, 
and  peace  to  which  the  cause  opens  the  way, — 
these  are  the  qualities  which  redeem  social  service 
from  its  discouragements,  its  small  conceits  and^ 
its  automatism,  and  make  it  virile,  healthy,  happy, 
and  sane. 

This  truth,  however,  that  the  social  questions  are 
expressions  of  moral  energy  is  a  truth  which  is 
also  of  special  significance  for  the  student  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  From  what  source,  one  asks 
himself,  is  there  to  come  an  adequate  supply  of 
this  moral  energy,  this  impulse  of  love  and  hope, 
of  courage  and  patience,  of  sympathy  and  wisdom, 
which  shall  keep  the  social  movement  fresh  and 
free  ?  What  source  of  spiritual  power  can  insure 
to  the  stream  of  service  an  even  and  abundant 
flow,  instead  of  an  intermittent  and  wasted  cur- 
rent .!*  It  is  not  necessary,  in  reply  to  this  ques- 
tion, to  insist  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  the 
sole  source  of  such  social  energy.  Many  causes 
have  conspired  to  make  the  present  the  age  of  the 
social  question,  and  many  influences  and  circum- 
stances have  enlarged  the  stream  of  sympathy  and 
social  obligation  which  flows  through  the  midst  of 
the  present  time.  Yet  it  is  perfectly  evident  that 
the  Christian  Church  has  at  its  command  both  a 
quantity  and  a  quality  of  social  power,  which, 
whenever  they  have  been  fairly  utilized,  have  had 
quite  unparalleled  effect.  No  sooner  did  the  first 
flood  of  Christian  feeling  sweep  over  the  ancient 


352      -JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

world  than  a  new  harvest  of  philanthropy  spon- 
taneously sprang  up,  as  a  new  crop  springs  from 
a  sterile  field  where  the  stream  of  irrigation  has 
flowed.  The  same  social  fruitfulness  has  followed 
in  every  age  each  new  access  of  genuine  Christian 
life.  Even  when  such  a  stream  has  been  diverted 
to  what  seems  antagonistic  to  the  social  life,  as  in 
the  development  of  monasticism,  there  have  been 
none  the  less  created  new  social  ties,  with  new 
ways  of  organization  for  social  service.  Plainly 
we  have  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  a  source  of  social 
energy  which  has  been  but  scantily  utilized  by  the 
modern  world. 

Nor  is  it  necessary  to  insist  that  the  message 
of  Jesus  is  primarily  one  of  social  welfare.  On 
the  contrary,  it  comprehends  many  other  things ; 
and,  as  we  saw  at  the  outset  of  this  inquiry,  is 
primarily,  not  a  message  to  society,  but  one 
addressed  to  the  needs  and  desires  of  the  in- 
dividual soul.  Primarily  devoted,  however,  as 
the  message  of  Jesus  is  to  the  individual,  it  is 
none  the  less  true  that  with  constant  and  solemn 
reiteration  he  affirms  the  test  of  the  salvation  of 
the  individual  to  reside  in  his  contribution  to 
social  service.  Not  confession  of  sin  alone,  he 
says,  nor  adoration,  nor  orthodoxy  of  opinion,  but 
the  fruits  of  the  spirit  are  the  signs  of  discipleship. 
If  any  man  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none 
of  his.  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."^ 
"  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord, 

1  Matt.  vii.  1 6. 


CORRELATION  OF  THE  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS      353 

shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."^ 
Not  ecclesiastical  fellowship  nor  theological  assent 
separates,  according  to  Jesus,  the  sheep  from  the 
goats,  but  the  care  of  the  hungry  and  the  stranger 
and  the  sick.  ^  Not  he  who  receives  the  water  of 
baptism  or  the  cup  of  communion  has  the  assur- 
ance of  blessing,  but,  **  Whosoever  shall  give  to 
drink  unto  one  of  these  little  ones  a  cup  of  cold 
water  only,  .  .  .  shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward.  "  ^ 
What  irony  of  religious  teaching,  then,  it  is,  and 
what  a  deliberate  withdrawal  of  the  influence  of 
Christianity  from  any  bearing  on  the  concerns  of 
modern  life,  when  it  is  proposed  to  prolong  the 
ancient  controversies  of  orthodoxy  or  ritual  or 
organization,  as  though  they  in  any  degree  repre- 
sented the  ends  to  which  Jesus  devoted  himself,  or 
could  be  of  the  slightest  real  concern  to  those  who 
are  meeting  the  needs  of  the  present  age.  Accord- 
ing to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  the  Christian  Church 
is  to  be,  not  a  deposit  of  opinion,  but  a  source  of 
spiritual  energy,  a  mighty  social  dynamic,  a  foun- 
tain of  redemptive  life.  "  Because  I  live,"  he  says, 
"ye  shall  live  also."*  The  gift  of  Jesus  is  a  gift 
(jf  life.  "  I  came  that  they  may  have  life  ; "  ^  and 
life  is  known  by  its  creative,  self-propagating, 
self-communicating  power. 

It  follows   from   this  truth   that   achievements 
which  are  often  regarded  as  extraneous  and  acci- 

1  Matt.  vii.  21.  2  Matt.  xxv.  35.  *  Matt.  x.  42. 

*  John  xiv.  19.  ®  John  x.  10. 

2A 


354     JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

dental  in  the  work  of  a  Christian  church  may  be 
in  fact  its  essential  and  central  intention  and  the 
best  justification  of  its  existence  and  its  claims. 
A  church,  for  instance,  proceeds  to  enforce  its 
forms  and  tests,  its  theology  and  philosophy, 
as  its  central  duty,  and  as  if  incidentally  and 
by  the  way  leavens  the  community  about  it  with 
the  spirit  of  benevolence,  sympathy,  patience, 
and  hope.  What  a  curious  experience  it  might 
be  for  such  a  church  some  day  to  wake,  and 
discover  that  these  incidental  achievements  were 
what  most  commended  it  to  its  Master !  A 
Christian  mission  in  foreign  parts  lavishes  its 
efforts  in  the  attempt  to  bring  heathen  to  Christ, 
and  counts,  with  great  self-reproach,  few  gains 
from  all  its  devotion ;  but  meantime,  while  fulfill- 
ing its  technical  obligation,  it  comes  to  pass 
that  the  spiritual  climate  in  the  neighborhood 
of  these  devoted  souls  by  degrees  experiences  a 
subtle  change  —  cruelty  disappears,  domestic  Hfe 
grows  purer,  tolerance  and  truthfulness  begin  to 
supplant  the  heathen  traits  of  bigotry  and  de- 
ceit. What  is  this  gentler  air  which  is  breathed 
wherever  a  wisely  administered  mission  has  done 
its  patient  work?  It  is  the  proof  that  the  mis- 
sion is  accomplishing  that  which  it  was  set  to 
do.  This,  and  not  the  number  of  converts  it  can 
count,  may  be  the  test  of  its  missionary  fidel- 
ity, genuineness,  and  power.  Many  a  man  can 
teach  Christian  doctrine  to  heathen  listeners,  but 
only  a  life  which  has  been  hid  with  Christ  in  God 


CORRELATION  OF  THE  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS         355 

can  communicate  to  heathen  lives  the  spiritual 
energy  which  proceeds  through  Christ  from  God. 
Or,  once  more,  a  new  and  sudden  responsibility  is 
laid  upon  a  nation  to  convey  to  people  at  the  ends 
of  the  earth  the  blessings  of  a  Christian  civiliza- 
tion ;  and  many  are  rash  enough  to  say  in  the 
name  of  religion,  "  Let  us  first  subdue  this  people 
by  force  of  arms  and  then  the  way  will  be  clear 
to  carry  to  them  the  teaching  of  Jesus."  The 
teaching  of  Jesus,  however,  is  not  something  that 
waits  until  the  social  questions  of  aggression  and 
war  are  answered.  It  must  be  communicated 
through  the  process  of  civilization,  not  after  that 
process,  or  before  it.  It  is  impossible  for  the  same 
nation  to  present  itself  to  a  heathen  world,  first  as 
rapacious,  commercialized,  and  lustful  for  glory, 
and  later  as  an  ambassador  of  the  mercy  and  grace 
of  Christ.  We  have  seen  in  the  making  of  money 
that  it  is  the  getting  of  wealth  with  clean  hands, 
and  not  the  free  spending  of  ill-gotten  wealth, 
which  marks  the  Christian  man  of  business.  The 
same  thing  may  be  said  of  empire-making.  It  is 
the  moral  quality  of  the  conquest  itself,  and  not 
that  which  may  happen  after  the  conquest,  which 
represents  the  Christian  energy  of  the  conquering 
nation ;  and  it  is  the  motives  which  prompt  and 
direct  the  original  approach  to  a  heathen  civiliza- 
tion which  are  likely  either  to  bring  heathen  to 
Christ  or  to  repel  them  from  him. 

What  is  it,  ^en,  to  which  we  are  brought  as  the 
special  problem  which  presents  itself  to  the  Chris- 


356      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION 

tian  Church  in  the  age  of  the  social  question  ?  It 
is  the  problem  of  communicating  to  the  social 
movement  that  social  energy  which  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  originates  and  conserves.  There  are 
other  aspects  of  that  teaching  which  have  met  the 
peculiar  needs  of  other  times ;  and  there  are  some 
aspects  of  it  which  are  plainly  applicable  to  all 
times  and  which  touch  the  universal  experience  of 
human  sin,  contrition,  and  aspiration.  Yet  all  these 
profound  effects  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  its  recon- 
struction of  theology  and  its  regeneration  of  indi- 
vidual life,  are  consummated  and  justified  by  being 
gathered  up  into  a  sense  of  power  which  can  create 
a  better  world.  After  all,  the  test  of  religion  is  in 
what  it  will  do.  St.  Paul,  discoursing  of  Christian 
theology,  submits  even  the  world  of  knowledge  to 
the  test  of  power,  "That  I  may  know  him,'*  he 
says,  "  and  the  power  of  his  resurrection  "  ;  ^  as 
though  even  his  certainty  concerning  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ  was  precious  to  him  because  of  the 
power  which  it  conveyed.  Jesus  himself  often 
defines  discipleship  to  himself  in  terms  of  social 
utility.  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are 
my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to  another."  ^ 

What,  then,  is  the  place  of  the  Christian  Church 
in  the  modern  world  ?  It  is  not  a  place  where  cor- 
rectness of  opinion  is  guarded  and  maintained ;  not 
a  cold-storage  warehouse  for  uncorrupted  truth  ; 
not  merely  a  place  of  religious  utterance,  or  of 
religious    symbolism,    or  a   gymnasium   of   ritual 

1  Phil.  iii.  lo.  2  John  xiii.  35. 


CORRELATION  OF  THE  SOCIAL  QUESTIONS        357 

for  the  calisthenics  of  the  soul.  It  is,  to  use  the 
language  of  our  modern  life,  a  "power-house," 
where  there  is  generated  a  supply  of  spiritual 
energy  sufficient  to  move  the  world  with  wis- 
dom, courage,  and  peace.  Let  this  power  fail, 
and  a  church  stands  in  the  midst  of  modern  life 
without  adequate  reason  for  existence,  a  Sunday 
club,  an  entertainment  bureau,  a  survival  of  the 
days  when  religion  was  real.  A  living  church  com- 
municates power.  "The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit." ^ 
"Every  tree  therefore  that  bringeth  not  forth  good 
fruit  is  hewn  down,  and  cast  into  the  fire."^ 

And  what,  again,  is  the  place  of  a  Christian 
teacher  or  preacher  in  such  a  time  ?  He  is  like 
one  who  has  at  his  command  some  tremendous 
source  of  physical  power,  such  as  the  cataract  of 
Niagara  provides,  and  who  proposes  to  utilize  this 
power  in  the  service  of  the  world.  The  stream 
has  flowed  for  ages,  abundant  and  unspent,  but 
for  the  most  part  it  has  been  rather  a  spectacle 
to  admire  than  a  power  to  use;  and  when,  from 
time  to  time,  timid  ventures  have  been  made  to 
use  it,  they  have  come  to  harm  by  the  very  excess 
of  power  which  they  had  not  learned  to  control. 
At  last  arrives  the  new  opportunity  of  the  modern 
world.  The  miracles  of  modern  invention  and 
organization  provide  an  adequate  channel  for  the 
distribution  of  this  mighty  power  through  all  the 
varied  and  correlated  needs  of  men,  and  the  task 
of  the  modern  engineer,  unprecedented  in  its 
1  Matt  xii.  33.  *  Matt.  iii.  10. 


358      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

opportunity,  is  to  direct  and  control  the  power 
itself.  Never  before  has  the  world  seen  the 
mechanism  of  the  social  order  adapted  as  it  now 
is  for  the  conveyance  of  social  energy.  The  ample 
channel,  thus  provided,  waits  for  the  power  of  the 
Christian  life,  and  as  the  sufficient  stream  leaps 
forth  into  the  varied  activities  of  the  world,  it  sings 
as  it  flows,  "  I  came  that  they  may  have  life,  and 
may  have  it  abundantly."  ^ 

What,  then,  in  its  simplest  statement,  is  the 
relation  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  the  social 
question.?  That  teaching  is,  for  those  who  can 
receive  it,  the  chief  source  of  this  spiritual  power, 
for  whose  transmission  the  social  order  is  pre- 
pared ;  and  of  this  transmission  of  power  the 
humblest  of  the  followers  of  Jesus  may  be  an 
instrument.  He  sanctifies  himself  for  others' 
sakes,  and  there  is  given  to  him  unanticipated 
effectiveness  for  social  service.  He  becomes  an 
unobstructed  channel  for  the  water  of  life.  "  He 
that  believeth  on  me,  .  .  .  out  of  his  belly  shall 
flow  rivers  of  living  water."  ^  Much  there  may 
be  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  which  remains  too 
exalted  or  obscure  to  command  the  honest  con- 
viction of  the  man  of  the  modern  world ;  yet  he 
has  found  at  least  the  secret  of  spiritual  power. 
The  view  of  life  from  above  has  given  him  com- 
mand of  the  world  below;  the  approach  to  life 
from  within  has  made  him  master  of  himself  ;  and 
the  direction  of  life  to  a  spiritual  ideal  has  given 

1  John  X.  10.  *  John  vii.  38. 


CORRELATION  OF  THE   SOCIAL  QUESTIONS      359 

him  magnanimity,  patience,  and  peace.  It  may 
not  be  for  him  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  but  it  is  enough  if  he  may  prepare 
the  coming  of  that  kingdom,  and  the  great  words 
of  Jesus  support  his  ignorance  and  renew  his  hope  : 
"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  ^ 

"  And  I  remember  still 

The  words,  and  from  whence  they  came, 

Not  he  that  repeateth  the  name 

But  he  that  doeth  the  will. 

And  him  evermore  I  behold 

Walking  in  Galilee, 

Through  the  cornfield's  waving  gold 

By  the  shores  of  the  Beautiful  Sea. 

»  4>  *  *  * 

"  And  that  voice  still  soundeth  on 

From  the  centuries  that  are  gone 

To  the  centuries  that  shall  be. 

From  all  vain  pomps  and  shows, 

From  the  pride  that  overflows, 
***** 
"  Poor  sad  humanity 
Through  all  the  dust  and  heat 
Turns  back  with  bleeding  feet 
By  the  weary  round  it  came. 
Unto  the  simple  thought. 
By  the  great  Master  taught. 
And  that  remaineth  still, 
Not  he  that  repeateth  the  name 
But  he  that  doeth  the  will."" 
1  Matt.  vii.  21.  2  Longfellow,  «  The  Golden  Legend,"  Finale. 


INDEX   OF   BIBLE   PASSAGES 


Exodus 


Leviticus 

Deut. 

Psalms 

Proverbs 
Isaiah 


u.  14 
xix.  6  . 
xix.  x8 

XV.  II 

li.  10 
xli.  I  . 
xiv.  21 
ix.  6  . 
xi.  2  . 
Iviii.  6  . 
Iviii.  7  . 
Ixiii.  9  . 
Jeremiah  xxiii.  28 
xxiii.  29 
xxiii.  32 
xxiii.  39 
xxiv.  6  . 
xxiv.  7  . 

ii.  44 
iii.  10 
iv.  3  . 
iv.4  . 
iv.  9  . 
iv.  18 
v.-vii.     . 


Daniel 
Matthew 


V.3  . 
v.S  . 
V.  21 
V.30 
V.  31 
V.  42 

▼i.  2  . 
vL3  . 
vi.  10 
vi.  19 
ri.  30 
vi.  21 
vi.  24 


PAGE 

275 

.      93 

.    249 

228,  242 

.    1x8 

228 

228 

86 

86 

228 

228 

86 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

93 

179.  357 

.    114 

.    "5 

296,  317 

.    n 

.      88 
200,  239 

239 
146 
214 
146 
193,  237,  239, 

257 

...    241 

217,  241 

...      92 

188,  207,  277 

.      193. 277 

...    207 

189,  244 


193 


Matthew 


PAGE 

vi.33 

.      277 

vi.34 

.      277 

vii.  7  , 

.      240 

vii.  16 

•      352 

vii.  21 

353.  359 

viii.4  . 

.      89 

viii.  5  . 

.    n 

viii.  S-13 

.  278 

viii.  10 

.  203 

viii.  14 

.  203 

viii.  21 

.    81 

ix.9  . 

.  278 

ix.  lo 

.  .  203 

X.31 

•    77 

X.34 

.  286 

X.42 

341.  353 

xi.S  . 

238,  242 

xi.  12 

.    .    286 

xi.25 

.  302 

xi.  28 

70, 239 

xii.  28 

.    96 

xii.  33 

.  .  357 

xii.  36 

.  342 

xii.  37 

.  342 

xiii.  3-8 

.  277 

xiii.  4-7 

.  302 

xiii.  II 

.  290 

xiii.  25 

.  302 

xiii.  26 

.  .  302 

xiii.  31 

100, 286 

xiii.  32 

.   100 

xiii.  33 

.  100 

xiii.  45 

.  277 

xiii.  46 

.  92, 277 

xiii.  47 

.  .  278 

xiii.  48 

.  278 

xiii.  54 

.    .      86 

XV.  32 

.    .    248 

xvi.  2  . 

.    •        4 

361 


362 


INDEX   OF   BIBLE   PASSAGES 


Matthew 


PACK 

PAGB 

xvi.3 4 

Matthew  xxiv.  31     , 

.     .     .        92 

xvi.  27 

.      .     302 

xxiv.  33     . 

.     .      .        96 

xvii.  I  . 

.    .      88 

xxiv.  34     . 

.     .      .      287 

xvii.  9  . 

.  .   89 

XXV.  13     . 

.       209,  287 

xvii.  15-18 

.  .  108 

XXV.  14-30 

.       208,  209 

xvii.  25 

•  .  275 

XXV.  14     . 

.      .      .     22a 

xviii.  4  . 

.    .      94 

XXV,  16       . 

.     .      .      278 

xviii.s  . 

.  94.341 

XXV.  17      . 

.      .      .      278 

xviii.  6  . 

.    .    342 

XXV,  20     . 

.      .      .      214 

xviii.  8  . 

.    .    IS7 

XXV.  21        ,  122,  209,  214, 

xviii.  9  . 

.    •    157 

243 

xviii.  12 

.    .      80 

XXV.  23      . 

.     .      .      290 

xix.3  . 

.    .    146 

XXV.  24-28 

.      .      .     30a 

xix.4  . 

.    .    151 

XXV.  24-30 

.      ,      ,      222 

xix.S  . 

ISO,  151 

XXV.  29 

■        209.290 

Tix.  6  .    . 

z 

SO, 

1S2.  IS8 

XXV.  30      . 

.      .      ,      214 

xix.8  . 

.   .    iSS 

XXV.  34      .  241,  266,  341 

xix.  9  .    . 

146.  IS9 

XXV.  35     . 

.    .    •    353 

xix.  10 

.    ISS 

XXV.  35  ft 

.    .    .    217 

xix.  10-12 

.    .    156 

XXV.  40     .   71,  241,  266, 

xix.  16-22 

.    210 

341 

xix.  21      .  I 

93, 

239,  240 

XXV.  41      . 

.  71.342 

xix.  24     . 

.    189 

XXV.  45      . 

.    .    342 

xix.  30     . 
XX.  i-i6 . 

.    289 
.    286 

xxvi.  6  .    , 

.    .    148 

xxvi.  7  .    . 

.       .      219 

XX.6  .    . 

.    278 

.    293 

289,  293 

xxvi.  8  .    . 

.      .       210 

XX.8  .    .    . 

xxvi.  Q  .    . 

•      •       *xy 
.      .      210 

XX.  14      .  2J 

B6. 

xxvi.  13      .    . 

.       .       219 

XX,  15     . 

.    213 

xxvi.  21      .    . 

.       .      302 

XX.  x6     .    . 

.    286 

Mark              i.  14     .    , 

.      .         92 

XX.  27     .3 

IS. 

316,  325 

i.iS     .    . 

.       .         92 

XX.  28      . 

.    315 

i.20      .     , 

.      .      203 

xxi.33   .  . 

.    278 

ii.iS     .    . 

.      .      203 

xxii.  IS     .    . 
xxii.  18     .    , 

.    274 
.    146 

iv.  0  .    .    . 

.       .         81 

»».  y    •      •      • 
iv.25        .      . 

290,291 

xxii  20     •    , 

.    193 

iv.31        .      . 

.      .       100 

xxii.  21     .    . 

.      78 

iv.  32     .    . 

.      .       100 

xxii.  28     .    . 

.    IS9 

iv.34     .    . 

.       .         90 

xxii.  30     .    . 

.    1S9 

viii.  15     .    . 

.    .      9S 

xxii.  33     .    . 

.    147 

viii.  26      .    . 

.    .      89 

xxii.  39     .    . 

.      S6 

viii.  36      .    . 

.    .    113 

xxiii.  23     .    . 
xxiii.  26     .    . 

-      1Ae^ 

ix.  I  .    .    . 

.     ,       ga 

"3.  179 

ix.23      .    . 

-     .     309 

xxiv.  3  .    .    . 

loi,  305 

X.  I-I2  ,      . 

.     .     152 

xxiv.  27      .    , 

.    .    302 

X.  II        .      . 

,     ,     146 

xxiv.  30     . 

. 

.  92I 

X.  17-23    . 

.     .     210 

INDEX    OF   BIBLE   PASSAGES 


363 


PAGE 

Mark     x.  21 211 

X.  23 188, 212 

X.  31 289 

X-  43 94,  205 

X.46 n 

xii.  i-ii 222 

xii.  2 222 

xii.  9 223 

xii.  13 274 

xii.  37 204 

xii.  40 221 

xii.  43 217 

xiii.  34 222,  244 

xiv.  3  ......    219 

Luke       i.  S3 194 

ii-3S 310 

ii.  SI 148 

ii.  S2 86 

iv.  4 219 

iv.  20 238 

iv.  21 238 

V.  II 210 

V.  14 89 

V.  27 ij 

vi.  20  .    .    .57, 188,  193, 

200,  239 

vi.  24  ...    S7.  188,  193 

vi.  29 81 

vi.  30  .    .    .    .     193, 240 

vii.  22 82 

vii.  37 77,  219 

vii.  so 70 

viii.  3 204 

viii.  16-18 291 

ix.  25 214 

ix.  27  .    .    .    .      2S9, 300 

ix.  28 259 

ix.  29 259 

ix.  SI 98 

ix.  58 147 

X.  9 300 

X.  23 96 

x-3^3S   •    •    •     241,249 

X.  35 250 

X.42 n 

».  39-42 243 


PAGE 

Luke  xii.  13 194 

xii.  13-15 275 

xii.  14 78 

xii.  15 79,  189 

xii.  16-21  .  .  .  194,  208 
xii.  19-21     .    .    ,    .213,277 

xii.  20 209 

xii.  22 237 

xii.  32-34 239 

xii- 33 193 

xii.  40 213 

xii.  42 243 

xii.  43 216 

xii.  44 216 

xii.  48 293 

xii.  54-56 4 

xiii.  19 100 

xiii.  21      ......     100 

xiii.  30 289 

xiv.  21      ....      193,  286 

xiv.  33 210 

XV.  4-6 278 

XV,  8  ...     .       80,  92,  278 

XV.  9  ......    .    278 

XV.  18  .  .  .  102,  117,  147 
xvi.  1-13  ....      194,  208 

xvi.  2 246 

xvi.  II  ....  209, 278 
xvi.  18  ....  146,  152 
xvi.  20      ......     194 

xvi.  21 210 

xvii.  5 309 

xvii.  6 309 

xvii.  10 244 

xvii.  20 93 

xvii.  21 93,  300 

xviii.  8 314 

xviii.  13 117 

xviii.  18  ff. 210 

xviii.  22     .    .    .   57,  189,  193, 

210,  217,  234, 

239,  246 

xviii.  24 57,  216 

xix.  2 203 

xix.  7 "Ji 

xix.  8 203,  24X 


364 


INDEX  OF   BIBLE   PASSAGES 


FACE 

Luke  xix.  9 203 

xix.  13 222 

xix.  13-27     ......    208 

xix.  20-24 ^^^ 

xix.  22 222 

XX.  20 274 

xxi.  z 242 

xxi.  3 242 

xxi.  4 242 

xxii.  12-38 88 

xxii.  27 315 

xxii.  36 81 

xxii.  69 302 

xxiv.  21 90 

xxiv.  32 310 

John     ii.  i-ii 76,  148 

ii.  2 81 

iii.  I ^^,  203 

iii.  1-21 89,  205 

"i.3S 315 

iv.  7-26 305 

iv.  7-29 89 

iv.  24 148 

iv.  26 148 

iv.35 301 

vi.37 239 

vi.  63 90 

vii.  38 358 

viii.  7-11 148 

viii.  12 74 

ix.1 77 

ix.  1-12 258 

ix.8 259 

x.a-S 277 

X.  10     ...    90.353.358 

xi.  1-44 76 

xi.6 81 

xi.  21-27 ^48 

xii.  I 88 

xii.  3 204,  219 

xii.  5 192,  243 

xii.  7 148 

xii.  8 148,  239 

xii.  32 86,  263 

xii.  35 74 

xii.  46 74 


FAGS 

John      xiii.  14 325 

xiii.  IS 315 

xiii.  29     .    .    .      192, 242 

xiii.  31 315 

xiii.  35     .    .    28,  315,  356 

xiv.  8 78 

xiv.  12 87 

xiv.  19     ....  90,  353 

XV.  26 302 

xvi.  7 90 

xvi.  13     ....  82,  302 

xvi.  31 309 

xvii.  4 88 

xvii.  19     ....  91,  104 

xviii.  15 203 

xviii.  36     ....  94,  276 

xviii.  37 276 

xix.  26 148 

xix.  27 148 

xix.  30 88 

xix.  38 204 

xix.  39 204 

XX.  21 89 

.  xxi.  3  ff. 203 

Acts  ii.  4 198 

ii.  44     ....  22,  198 

iii.  2 259 

iii.  5 260 

iii.  6 260 

iv.  32 22 

iv.37 25 

v.  i-io 25 

V.4 25,98 

vi.  I 199 

viii.  27 199 

ix.34 259 

xi.  29 24 

xii.  12 24 

xiii.  7 199 

xiv.  10 259 

xvii.  34 199 

xviii.  8 199 

XX.  35 248 

xxiii.  6 77,  199 

Romans  viii.  19      .    .    .      102,  126 
xiii.  8 246 


INDEX   OF   BIBLE   PASSAGES 


365 


PAGE 

PAGB 

Romans 

xiv.  17     . 

.    .    .      99 

Galatians 

vi.  10     ....    196 

I  Cor. 

i.26     . 

.    .    196 

Philemon 

iii.  10 

.      .      356 

iii.  21     . 

.    .    201 

iv.  II 

.      .       196 

iii.23     . 

.    .    .    201 

iv.  18 

.       196 

xi.  22     . 

.    .    196 

I  Timothy 

vi.  18 

.      .       196 

xiii.  3  .    . 

.      196, 264 

James 

i.  II      . 

.      201 

xiii.  7  .    . 

.    .    .    260 

ii.  18 

.      232 

xvi.  2  .    . 

.    .    .      24 

V.  I    . 

.       198 

II  Cor. 

ix.  7  .    . 

.  24,  196 

I  John 

V.4  . 

.      309 

I  Thess. 

ii.  9  .    . 

.    .    196 

Revelation 

ii.S. 

.      291 

II  Thess. 

iii.  Z3     . 

.    .      24 

».iS    . 

.     323 

INDEX 


Abbott,  Lyman,  69  note. 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  197,  198. 
Adler,  G.,  28  note. 
Allen,  A.  V.  G.,  91  note. 
Ananias,  sin  of,  25. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  96,  119. 
Aschrott,  P.  F.,  255  note. 
Aveling,  E.  B.,  141  note. 

Bagehot,  W.,  135,  313  note. 
Barnabas,  the  disciple,  25. 
Bax,  Belfort,  16,  142  note. 
Bebel,  A.,  3  note,  16,  19,  140  note, 

141  note. 
Beyschlag,  W.,  68  note,    91  note, 

93  note,  95  note,  98  note. 
Biedermann,  A.  E.,  103  note. 
Bodicker,  39  note. 
Bohmer,  Julius,  68  note. 
Boh  mart,  Victor,  256  note. 
Bonar,  J.,  13  note. 
Bosanquet,  B.,  230  note. 
Bousset,  W.,  95  note. 
Brace,  C.  L.,  227  note. 
Bradley,  F.  H.,  59. 
Brentano,  L,,  37  note. 
Brooke,  Stopford,  74,  219  note. 
Brooks,  J.  G.,  46  note. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  68  note,  90. 
Browning,  E.  B.,  114. 
Browning,  Robert,  293,  294. 
Bruce,  A.  B.,  68  note,  loi  note. 
Bums,  John,  311. 
Bushnell,  Horace,  132  note. 
Business,  Christian  conduct  of,  244 

ff. ;  pessimistic  views  of,  316 ;  a 

system  of  social  service,  317  ff. ; 

ethical  quality  of,  319  ff.;    the 

law  of  service  in,  321  fif. 


Campbell,  Colin,  191  note. 


Cannon,  W.  B.,  83  note. 

Carlyle,  31  ff. 

Carpenter,  J.  E.,  192  note. 

Catholic  Church,  in  the  social 
movement,  41  ff.;  social  doc- 
trine of,  45,  46  note. 

Charity,  rejection  of,  6;  old  and 
new  view,  8;  problem  of,  116; 
use  of  wealth  for,  217 ;  Christian, 
226  ff.  ;  early  Christian,  231  ; 
suspicion  of,  234  ff. ;  revolution- 
ists' opinion  of,  236;  dangerous 
form  of,  243;  begins  at  home, 
245;  changes  advocated  in,  251; 
institutionalism  in,  253  ff. ;  organ- 
ization of,  257 ;  its  real  task,  261 
ff.;  nature  of  Christian,  264; 
specialists  in,  329. 

Children,  in  the  socialist  State,  143 ; 
care  of,  168  ff. ;  in  a  Christian 
home,  181;  care  of,  in  institu- 
tions, 253. 

Christianity,  socialist  opinion  of, 
16, 19  ff. ;  relation  to  social  ques- 
tion, 21 ;  mark  of  modern,  29 ; 
schemes  for  applying  to  social 
question,  30,  36,  41,  53 ;  essence 
of  modern,  69  ff.;  attitude  to- 
ward woman,  148 ;  root  in  family 
affection,  148  note ;  influence  on 
work  for  the  poor,  233;  final 
test  of,  315. 
Christie,  F.  A.,  54  note. 
Church,  R.  W.,  69  note,  229  note. 
Church,  the,  relation  of  labor  to, 
15 ;  relation  of  social  reform  to, 
20  ff. ;  institutional,  29 ;  to  enter 
Industry,  43,  45;  no  economic 
programme,  49 ;  loss  of  influence, 
56;    the  revolutionists'  view  of, 


367 


368 


INDEX 


64;  organization  of,  72;  tradi- 
tions respecting  Jesus,  85 ;  trans- 
formation of,  no;  danger  of, 
126;  attitude  toward  divorce, 
131;  in  Jerusalem,  200;  ethical 
degradation  of,  221 ;  its  relations 
to  the  poor,  232 ;  abuse  of  char- 
ity in,  235  if.;  mistaken  charity 
of,  262;  rejection  of,  298;  its 
potentiality,  351 ;  a  source  of 
spiritual  energy,  353 ;  true  work 
of,  354 ;  its  place  in  the  modern 
world,  356. 

Club,  working-men's,  337  fF. 

"Columbia  College  Studies,"  130 
note. 

Commercialism,  danger  of,  175  fF. ; 
emancipation  from,  220;  in  busi- 
ness, 322,  325. 

Commissioner  of  Labor,  report  on 
marriage  and  divorce,  130  note, 
164  note. 

Communism,  Christian,  22  ff. ;  na- 
ture of,  at  Jerusalem,  25,  199; 
New  Testament  commentators 
on,  26  note. 

Competition,  38,  313  note, 

Conrad,  J.,  233  note. 

Contemporary  Review,  64,  66. 

Cook,  F.  G.,  131  note. 

Cooperation,  28. 

Cooperative  societies,  15,  47, 283  fif. 

Coulanges,  F.  de,  134  note,  229  note. 

Curzon,  on  Le  Play,  39  note, 

Darwin,  136. 

Davies,  J.  LI.,  69  note. 

Devas,  C.  L.,  13  note. 

Dike,  S.  W.,  131  note. 

Divorce,  increase  of,  129 ;  teaching 
of  Jesus  concerning,  152  ff. ;  law 
of  Moses  on,  155;  futility  of 
remedial  legislation,  162;  in 
cities,  164;  among  the  prosper- 
ous, 171,  177. 

Donald,  E.  W.,  69  note. 

Drummond,  J.,  69  note. 


Ebionism,  191  note. 

"  Ecce  Homo,"  55,  67  note,  73 
note,  146  note,  148  note,  309. 

Economics,  relation  to  ethics,  13 
note;  of  early  Christians,  25; 
Carlyle  and  Ruskin  as  teachers 
of.  33.  35;  study  of,  36;  un- 
christian character  of,  prevailing, 
38;  the  fundamental  problem 
of,  105 ;  of  the  New  Testament, 
274. 

Egoism,  danger  of,  173;  in  an- 
tiquity, 227. 

Elvers,  R.,  46  note. 

Ely,  R.  T.,  69  note. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  265. 

Engels,  Friedrich,  i6,  17  note. 

Ethics,  and  the  social  question,  lo, 
12, 13  note,  346 ;  the  old,  12 ;  and 
economics,  12  note ;  must  solve 
social  question,  40;  social,  of 
Jesus,  103 ;  lower  standards  of, 
172  ff. ;  double  standard  of,  sao ; 
in  the  labor  question,  273. 

Fairbaim,  A.  M.,  68  note. 

Faith,  power  of,  309;  strength  of 
men  of,  313 ;  need  of,  314. 

Family,  the,  value  questioned,  7; 
place  in  social  question,  40 ;  open 
to  change,  124 ;  teaching  of  Jesus 
concerning,  129  ff. ;  evolution  of, 
134  ff. ;  patriarchal  theory  of, 
135 ;  the  primitive,  137 ;  socialist 
teaching  about,  140  ff. ;  economic 
usefulness  of,  141  ff. ;  a  bulwark 
of  the  present  order,  144  ff.,  162 ; 
emphasized  by  Jesus,  145  ff. ;  its 
place  in  the  thought  of  Jesus,  149 ; 
permanence  of,  158  ff. ;  the  hope 
of  the  world,  i6i ;  causes  under- 
mining its  stability,  163  ff. ;  chief 
peril  to,  174;  undermined  by 
commercialism,  175  ff. ;  solution 
of  the  problem  of,  178;  what  is 
a  Christian,  180  ff. 

Fiske,  John,  136. 


INDEX 


369 


Flint,  Robert,  18  note,  69  note. 
Force,  transformation  of  social,  340 
ff. ;  the  fundamental  social,  346. 
Fowle,  T.  W.,  255  note,  261  note. 
France,  social  question  in,  40  fF. 
Fremantle,  W.  H.,  68  note. 
Friedlander,  Ludwig,  229  note. 

Gamett,  Richard,  31  note. 

George,  Henry,  10. 

Germany,  social  question  in,  41  ff. ; 
Protestant  social  programme  in, 
48 ;  militarism  in,  109. 

Gibbins,  H.  de  B.,  31  note. 

Gilbert,  G.  H.,  68  note. 

Girard,  on  Von  Ketteler,  42  note. 

Gladden,  Washington,  69  note. 

Gohre,  P.,  17  note,  29  note,  46 
note,  48  note,  60  note,  62  note, 
71  note,   142. 

Good  Samaritan,  the,  lesson  of, 
241,  249,  255,  257. 

Gore,  Charles,  69  note. 

Gospel,  the,  nature  of,  78;  study 
of,  81 ;  characteristics  of,  83,  88  ; 
apocalyptic  ideas  in,  95  ff. ;  vari- 
ations in,  152;  demands  family 
integrity,  162 ;  distorted  by  liter- 
alism, 190 ;  the  fourth,  disregards 
material  things,  192;  peculiarity 
of  the  third,  194 ;  its  estimate  of 
alms,  241 ;  tolerance  of,  288. 

Graham,  W.,  186. 

Gr^goire,  L.  (pseudonym),  37  «o/^, 
46  note. 

Gronlund,  L.,  141. 

Guilds,  45. 

Hadley,  A.  T.,  13  note. 
Harmel,  L6on,  45. 
Harnack,  A.,  loi  note. 
Harris,  George,  69  note. 
Hart,  A.  B.,  164  note. 
Hasler,  F.,  13  note. 
Haupt,  Erich,  96  note. 
Hegel,  effect  of  his  philosophy  on 
socialism,  18  fF. 

2B 


Henderson,  C.  R.,  233  note. 
Herrmann,  W.,  16  note,  18  note. 
Herron,  G.   D.,  26  note,  63  note^ 

189  note,  306  note,  316  note. 
Higgs,  H.,  39  note. 
Hobbes,  Thomas,  9. 
Hobson,  J.  A.,  on  Carlyle,  31  note, 

34  note. 
Hodges,  G.,  69  note. 
Holtzmann,  H.,  20  note,  27  note, 

60  note,  93  note,  loi  note,  191 

note,  194  note,  274  note. 
Holtzmann,  O.,  28  note,  190  note. 
Holy  Ghost,  sin  against,  25;    will 

guide  men  to  truth,  302. 
Huber,  Victor,  46  ff. 

Ibsen,  304  note. 

Ideal,  social,  of  Jesus,  91  ff.,  121 ; 
remoteness  of  the  spiritual,  119; 
of  socialism,  122;  of  social  ser- 
vice, 255;  the  expression  of,  in 
business,  314. 

Idealism,  of  Jesus,  104;  not  out- 
grown, 123, 128 ;  of  industrial  agi- 
tation, 307. 

Individual,  the,  80, 89,  loi,  103 ;  re- 
sponsibility of,  116;  his  devotion 
to  an  ideal,  119;  his  limitations 
and  emancipation,  120 ;  his  devel- 
opment by  society,  131  ff. ;  in  the 
family,  173  ff. ;  ideals  of,  purified, 
178 ;  redemption  of  the  world  by, 
309 ;  his  responsibility,  323 ;  must 
serve  society,  352. 

Industrial  order,  267 ;  present  con- 
dition of,  268  ff. ;  causes  of  antago- 
nism in,  272  fF. ;  Christian  view 
of,  279;  its  effect  on  men,  281  ff. ; 
transition  in,  297;  different  feel- 
ings toward,  302  ff.;  Christian 
problem  of,  325. 

Issel,  Ernst,  95  note. 

James,  Epistle  of,  197,  198  flf. 
Jannet,  C,  39  note. 


370 


INDEX 


Jerusalem,  communism  among 
Christians  at,  24  flf.,  199. 

Jesus  Christ,  his  rebuke  to  those 
who  cannot  see  the  signs  of  the 
times,  3 ;  and  the  socialists,  17 ; 
his  gospel,  20;  did  not  enjoin 
communism,  24,  26;  his  social 
teaching,  53  ff.,  76  ff.;  laborers' 
respect  for,  65 ;  of  the  churches 
and  of  the  gospels,  66 ;  imitation 
of,  70 ;  adaptation  of  his  teaching, 
71  ff. ;  different  views  of,  72  ff. ; 
his  supreme  concern,  77 ;  social 
teaching  not  his  aim ,  79 ;  method 
of  teaching,  80  fif. ;  how  inter- 
preted, 81 ;  reason  for  his  insight, 
84 ;  his  picture  in  art,  86 ;  teaching 
universal,  87 ;  did  not  systematize, 
89;  his  social  ideal,  91,  100;  his 
eschatological  sayings,  95  ff. ;  his 
philosophy  of  religion,  102 ;  indi- 
vidualist or  socialist,  103  ff. ;  his 
ministry  for  this  life,  106 ;  aspects 
of  his  teaching,  107  ff. ;  his  way  of 
salvation,  no,  ni;  his  temptation, 
114 ;  his  belief  in  personal  respon- 
sibility, 117;  his  contribution  to 
the  social  question,  123;  his 
teaching  concerning  principles, 
125;  interest  in  his  personality, 
127 ;  his  leadership,  128 ;  teaching 
about  the  family,  145  ff. ;  his  sym- 
pathy for  domestic  life,  147; 
respect  for  women,  148 ;  on  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  151  ff. ;  his  an- 
swer to  the  Sadducees,  159 ;  his 
solution  of  the  problem  of  the 
family,  178 ;  how  to  interpret,  191 ; 
his  environment,  202  ff.;  taught 
all  classes,  204  ff. ;  teaching  con- 
cerning the  rich,  207  ff. ;  and  the 
rich  young  man,  210  ff. ;  apparent 
conflict  of  his  teachings,  212 ;  se- 
verity of  his  message  to  the  rich, 
214  ff. ;  whom  he  commends,  222 
if.;  his  teaching  concerning  the 
poor,  226  ff. ;  his  view  of  alms,  241 


fF.;  his  doctrine  of  stewardship, 
243;  the  modern  tone  of  his 
teaching  about  the  poor,  246 ;  his 
method  of  dealing  with  the  poor, 
248, 258 ;  did  not  teach  economics, 
273  ff. ;  his  teaching  concerning 
industry,  276  ff. ;  method  of  ap- 
proaching the  industrial  question, 
290  ff.;  on  cumulative  returns, 
290  ff. ;  reconciliation  of  his  indus- 
trial teachings,  292  ff. ;  relation  of 
his  and  the  socialists'  ideal,  294 
ff. ;  an  optimist,  300  ff. ;  what  jus- 
tified his  hope  of  the  world,  308 
ff.;  relation  of  his  teaching  to 
thrift,  312;  practical  application 
of  his  teaching,  314  ff.;  how  to 
follow  him  in  business,  323  ff. ; 
his  teaching  on  the  correlation  of 
forces,  340  ff. ;  testofdiscipleship 
to  him,  352. 

Jodl,  Friedrich,  13  note. 

Jones,  Henry,  103  note. 

Juvenal,  229  note. 

Kaftan,  J.,  55,  note. 

Kaufmann,  M.,  11  note,  15  note, 
37  note,  42  note,  48  note. 

Keane,  Bishop,  46,  note. 

Keim,  Th.,  152  note,  191  note,  227 
note. 

"  Kernel  and  the  husk,"  65,  299. 

Ketteler,  W.  I.  von,  42  ff. 

Kingdom  of  God,  91  ff. ;  how  it  is 
to  come,  loi,  118;  what  it  offers, 
120;  Christian  law  designed  to 
establish,  158;  thought  of  Jesus 
concerning,  285  ff. ;  confidence 
of  Jesus  in,  300. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  37  note,  38. 

Kohler,  Hermann,  15  note,  16  note, 
18  note,  27  note. 

Lamennais,  41  ff. 
Lanciani,  Rodolfo,  230  note, 
Lange,  F.  A.,  13  note. 
Lassalle,  F.,  18,  42  tL 


INDEX 


371 


Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  227  note,  231, 

23s  ff- 

Leclaire,  E.  J.,  314  note. 

Leo  XIII,  Encyclical  of  May,  1891, 
45,  46  note. 

Le  Play,  F.,  39  ff. 

Liebknecht,  W.,  19. 

Lightfoot,  J.  B.,  231  note. 

Lipsius,  R.  A.,  103  note. 

Lloyd,  A.  P.,  130  note. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  359. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  8,  9. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  134  note. 

Luke,  Gospel  of,  Ebionism  in,  191 
note;  its  teaching  about  rich 
and  poor,  192  flf. ;  peculiarity  of, 
194  ff. ;  Paulinism  in,  195. 

Liitgenau,  Franz,  17  note. 

Mackay,  T.,  255  note. 

McLennan,  J.  F.,  134  note. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  132,  135  note. 

Mark,  Gospel  of,  192,  197. 

Marriage,  two  conceptions  of, 
131  ff. ;  in  the  light  of  social 
evolution,  138  ff.;  socialist  opin- 
ion of,  141  note;  popular  discus- 
sion of,  144;  teaching  of  Jesus 
concerning,  151;  after  divorce, 
154;  regulation  of,  155;  only 
alternative  to,  156 ;  rule  of,  157  ff. ; 
sanity  of  teaching  concerning, 
159  ff. ;  how  Jesus  approaches 
the  problem  of,  160;  selfishness 
in,  173;  commercial  spirit  in, 
17s  ff. ;  Christian,  181. 

Marshall,  A.,  283. 

Marx,  Karl,  i6,  18. 

Materialism,  i8,  20,  105. 

Mathews,  Shailer,  68  note,  95  note, 
102  note,  148  note,  189  note. 

Matthew,  Gospel  of,  sayings  about 
rich  and  poor  in,  193;  in  har- 
mony with  Paul's  epistles,  197. 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  21,  37  note,  46 
note. 

Mayo-Smith,  R.,  130  note^ 


Mazzini,  Joseph,  14,  42  note. 

Mehring,  F.,  17  note. 

Men,  their  production  the  end  of 

society,    310;    strengthened   by 

conflict,  313. 
Meyer's  Commentary,  on    Jesus' 

teaching  concerning  divorce,  153 

note. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  229  note. 
Morris,  William,  8,  35  note. 
Mun,  A.,  Comte  de,  44. 
Miinsterberg,  E.,  256  note, 
"  Mus6e  Social,"  39  note, 

Nash,  H.  S.,  13  note. 

Nathusius,    M.  von,   20  note,    27 

note,  41  note,  68  note. 
Nations,  mission  of,  i ;  retribution 

upon,  31. 
Naumann,  F.,  17,  52,  61,  140  note, 

141    note,     142   note,    189    note, 

2prj  note. 
Neander,  J.  A.  W.,  85  note. 
Newman,  J.  H.,  91  note. 
Nitti,   F.  S.,  26  note,  41  note,  42 

note,  46  note,  63. 
Nobili-Vitelleschi,  F.,  14  note. 

Opportunism,  Christian,  36  ff.,  104. 
Optimism,  of  Jesus,  300  ff.,  308; 

in  industrial  agitation,  302. 
Outlook,  The,  190. 

"  Parliamentary  Report  on  Elber- 
feld  System,"  256  note. 

Paul,  on  communism  among 
Christians,  24;  his  idea  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  99;  on  pov- 
erty and  riches,  195  ff.,  201. 

Paulsen,  F.,  13  note,  82  note,  215 
note. 

Peabody,  F.  G.,  79  note,  188,  228 
note,  233  note,  251  note,  252  note, 
256  note. 

Pearson,  Karl,  143  note. 

Personality,  its  place  in  the  social 
order,  102, 104, 127 ;  modification 


372 


INDEX 


of,  no;  the  aim  of  Jesus,  in, 
126;  development  of,  112;  Mrs. 
Browning  on,  114;  its  place  in 
organization,  125  ff . ;  in  the  in- 
dustrial order,  282  ff. 

Pessimism,  in  modern  socialism, 
304  ff. ;  revolutionary  character 
of,  306 ;  false  note  of,  306  ff. 

Pfleiderer,  O.,  27  note ;  103  note. 

Pfiuger,  Paul,  65  note. 

Philanthropy,  its  ethical  note,  10; 
as  an  application  of  the  Chris- 
tian spirit  to  the  social  question, 
27  ff. ;  the  social  question  goes 
beyond,  29 ;  not  to  rest  satisfied 
with  alms,  48 ;  what  it  needs,  107 ; 
work  of,  166;  found  root  in 
Rome,  230;  scope  of  Christian, 
231;  best  form  of,  256;  mis- 
taken, 339. 

Pliny  the  Younger,  230  note. 

Plummer,  A.,  on  Ebionism  in 
Luke,   192  note,  194  note. 

Political  Science  Quarterly,  131  note. 

Politicus  (pseudonym) ,  32  note. 

Poor,  the,  Jesus'  teaching  con- 
cerning, 226  ff ;  Jewish  care  for, 
228 ;  care  of,  by  the  church,  232 ; 
thought  of  Jesus  for,  238 ;  method 
of  Jesus  in  dealing  with,  248  ff ; 
different  types  of,  251 ;  cannot 
be  relieved  wholesale,  254;  re- 
lieved by  communicating  power, 
260  ff. ;  how  power  is  given  to, 
263 ;  injudicious  efforts  for,  330. 

Population,  concentration  of,  163 ; 
suburban,  167. 

Potter,  H.  C,  132  note. 

Preacher,  the,  legitimate  work  for, 
30;  limitations  of,  35;  his  place 
in  the  modern  world,  357. 

Property,  private,  its  right  ques- 
tioned, 7 ;  open  to  change,  124 ; 
transmission  of,  141 ;  its  test  as 
an  institution,  187 ;  tendency  of 
its  possession,  297  note. 

Prophet,  the,  in  the  social  ques- 


tion, 30  flf;   criticism  of,  35  ft; 
of  the  Old  Testament,  87. 

Rade,  M.,  17  note,  65  note,  69  tiote^ 
140  note. 

Rae,  John,  42  note,  48  note. 

Ragaz,  L.,  13  note. 

Reformers,  weakness  of,  319 ;  how 
they  must  approach  the  social 
problem,  331;  enthusiasm  of, 
332 ;  their  first  question,  350. 

Regeneration,  how  effected,  90; 
need  of,  115;  fundamental,  117; 
of  the  world,  309. 

Religion,  and  social  discontent,  15 ; 
socialist  attitude  toward,  16;  test 
of,  28;  how  it  meets  the  social 
question,  30;  social  utilization 
of,  36  ff. ;  in  industrial  life,  39; 
organization  of  labor  by,  43  ff. ; 
Christ's  philosophy  of,  102;  as 
dependence  on  God,  103;  as 
solution  of  the  social  question, 
106;  institutionalization  of,  109; 
harmony  of,  with  science,  341; 
the  test  of,  356. 

Renan,  E.,  on  communism  in  prim- 
itive Christianity,  26  note;  on 
social  teaching  of  Jesus,  58 ;  on 
teaching  concerning  riches,  191 
note. 

Repentance,  character  of,  147. 

R6ville,  A.,  229  note. 

Ribbe,  C.  de,  39  note. 

Rich,  the,  183  ff;  teaching  of 
Jesus  concerning,  188  ff ,  207  ff ; 
Paul  on  the  duty  of,  196 ;  follow- 
ers of  Jesus,  203  ?L\  Jewish 
opinion  of,  206;  message  of 
Jesus  to,  213  ff. ;  severity  of 
Jesus'  demands  on,  214 ;  Chris- 
tian life  of,  223  ff. 

Riis,  J.  A.,  253  note. 

Robertson,  J.  M.,  31  note. 

Rogge,  Christian,  27  note,  19a 
note,  194  note,  198  note,  -iiolb  nott^ 

Rome,  corruption  of,  228  ft 


INDEX 


373 


Runze,  George,  13  note. 

Ruskin,  31  note,  32  if.,  34  flf.,  184, 

289,  310  note. 
Russland,  Gustav,  68  note. 

Sabatier,  August,  68  note. 

Schleiermacher,  102,  103  note, 

Schmidt,  C,  227  note. 

Schmidt -Warneck,  68  note, 

Schmoller,  Otto,  95  note. 

Schnedermann,  Georg,  93  note,  95 
note. 

Schopenhauer,  20. 

Schulze-Gavernitz,  G.  von,  31  note. 

Schurman,  J.  G.,  134  note. 

Seneca,  85  note. 

Shaw,  Bernard,  143. 

Sin,  responsible  for  social  evil,  116; 
for  industrial  evil,  296.      ^ 

Smyth,  Newman,  13  note. 

Social  congresses,  37,  55  note,  61. 

Social  democracy,  the,  pro- 
gramme of,  4,  16  note,  44,  295; 
approves  working-men's  associa- 
tions, 42 ;  condemned  by  Stocker, 
49;  rejectsChristian socialism, 51. 

Social  machinery,  108  ff. ;  dangers 
in,  113;  must  be  readjusted  in 
each  age,  310 ;  must  have  moral 
power,  347  ff. 

Social  question,  the,  2  ff. ;  present 
characteristics  of,  5  ff.,  9  ff. ; 
interest  of,  11;  ethical  character, 
II,  12  note ;  relation  to  religion, 
14  ;  misinterpretation  of,  20 ; 
relation  of  Carlyle  and  Ruskin 
to,  31  ff. ;  ethical  rather  than 
economic,  40 ;  teaching  of  Jesus 
concerning,  53  ff.,  76  ff. ;  Jesus* 
view  of,  104 ;  all  engrossing,  105 ; 
how  solved,  106 ;  externalism  in, 
108, 112 ;  how  far  the  fault  of  the 
individual,  115  ff;  its  root  in 
moral  evil,  296;  its  correlation, 
327  ff. ;  transformations  of,  329 
if.;  expansion  of,  333;  funda- 
mentally ethical,  347. 


Socialism,  attitude  toward  religion, 
14, 16  ff ;  Christian,  41  if.,  46  ff , 
50  ff ;  relation  to  social  democ- 
racy, 52,  61;  creed  of,  109;  its 
end  ideal,  122;  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  287 ;  its  creed  a  substi- 
tute for  religion,  298  ;  misrepre- 
sents the  world,  308. 

Socialists,  their  philosophy  of  his- 
tory, 18,  140;  legislation  against, 
49,  51 ;  Protestant,  51 ;  Christian, 
61 ;  attack  on  the  family,  140 ;  on 
marriage,  141  note;  on  the  family, 
142  ff. ;  self-deception  of,  180; 
their  distrust  of  Jesus'  teaching, 
288  ff ;  relation  of  their  ideal  and 
Jesus'  ideal,  294  ff. :  optimism  of, 
303 ;  pessimism  of,  304  ff. 

Sederblom,  Nathan,  69  note. 

Soderini,  Count  Edward,  46  note. 

Spectator y  313  note. 

Spencer,    Herbert,  112,    139  note^ 

344. 

Starcke,  C.  N.,  134  note. 

State,  the,  questioned  as  an  institu- 
tion, 7 ;  socialism  of,  in  Germany, 
48 ;  as  a  social  unit,  140 ;  must 
relieve  destitution,  260;  evolu- 
tion of  the  socialist,  304  ff. 

Stein,  Ludwig,  13  note,  17  note, 
28  note,  59  note,  140  note,  297 
note. 

Stevens,  G.  B.,  93  note,  loi  note. 

Stimson,  F.  J.,  32  note, 

Stocker,  A.,  48  ff 

Sumner,  W.  G.,  235  note. 

Taylor,  Sedley,  on  profit-sharing, 

314  note. 
Temperance,    sphere   of,    333  ff. ; 

economic    progress    dependent 

on,  336;  method  of,  349. 
Tenements,  model,  166  ff. 
Theology,   its   interest  not  social, 

54    ff. ;     reaction    from,    56   ff. ; 

change  of,  69 ;  beginning  of,  72 ; 

of  Jesus,  147. 


374 


INDEX 


Thrift,    old    and    new   views    of, 

3iiff. 
Tillet,  Ben,  6  note. 
Todt,  Rudolf,  26  note,  60  ff. 
Toy,    C.    H.,   93    note,    97    note, 

98  note, 

Uhland,  Ludwig,  18  note. 
Uhlhorn,  Gerhard,  27  note,  29  note, 

68  note,  227  note. 
Unemployed,  the,  184. 
United  States,  criticised  by  Carlyle 

and  Ruskin,  34;  divorce  in,  129 ; 

charity  in,  233. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  9,  73,  304  note. 
Vogu6,    E.    M.,'  Vicomte    de,  46 
note. 

Wagner,  A.,  2,  3  note,  18  note, 
29s  note. 

Walsh,  W.,  58  note. 

Wealth,  distribution  of,  185  ff.; 
brought  to  the  test  of  utility, 
187;  divergent  teaching  about, 
in  New  Testament,  193  flf.,  aoi ; 


sayings  of  Jesus  about,  208  ff.; 
enervating  effect  of,  211 ;  a  trust, 
213,  216;  how  rightly  used,  216 
ff.;  its  ministry  to  happiness, 
218 ;  its  use  in  business,  220  ff. 

Weiss,  Bemhard,  68  note,  101  note^ 
192  note. 

Weiss,  J.,  95,  note. 

Weizsacker,  Karl  von,  27  note. 

Wendt,  H.  H..  27  note,  68  note^ 
80,  82,  92  note,  93  note,  95  note^ 
98  note,  152  note,  191  note. 

Westcott,  B.  F.,  69  note. 

Westermarck,  E.,  134  note, 

Wichern,  J.  H..  28. 

Willcox,  W.  F.,  130  note. 

Wilmanns,  Gustav,  230  note, 

Winterstein,  A.,  46  note. 

Wright,  C.  D.,  13  note,  131  note^ 
164  note,  307  note. 

Wundt,  W.,  13  note. 

Yamall,  E.,  38  note. 

Zahn,  Th.,  198. 

Ziegler,  Theobald,  12  note. 

Zinzendorf,  N.  L.,  Count  von,  87. 


New  Testament   Handbooks 


EDITED  BY 

SHAILER  MATHEWS 

Professor  of  New  Testament  History  and  InterpretoHon, 
University  of  Chicago 

Arrangements  are  made  for  the  following  volumes,  and  the  publishers 
will,  on  request,  send  notice  of  the  issue  of  each  volume  as  it  appears  and 
each  descriptive  circular  sent  out  later;  such  requests  for  information 
should  state  whether  address  is  permanent  or  not :  — 

The  History  of  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the 

New  Testament 
Prof.  Marvin  R.   Vincent,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Exege^s, 
Union  Theological  Seminary.  \_Noiv  ready. 

Professor  Vincent's  contributions  to  the  study  of  the  New  Testament  rank  him 
among  the  first  American  exegetes.  His  most  recent  publication  is  "  A  Critical 
and  Exegetical  Commentary  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Philippians  and  to  Philemon  " 
{International  Critical  Commentary),  which  was  preceded  by  a  "  Students' 
New  Testament  Handbook,"  "  Word  Studies  in  the  New  Testament,"  and 
others. 

The  History  of  the  Higher  Criticism  of  the 
New  Testament 

Prof.  Henry  S.  Nash,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation, 
Cambridge  Divinity  School,  \Now  ready. 

Of  Professor  Nash's  "  Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience,"  The  Outlook  said:  "  The 
results  of  Professor  Nash's  ripe  thought  are  presented  in  a  luminous,  compact, 
and  often  epigrammatic  style.  The  treatment  is  at  once  masterful  and  helpful, 
and  the  book  ought  to  be  a  quickening  influence  of  the  highest  kind;  it  surely 
will  establish  the  fame  of  its  author  as  a  profound  thinker,  one  from  whom  we 
have  a  right  to  expect  future  inspiration  of  a  kindred  sort." 

Introduction  to  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament 

Prof.  B.  WiSNER  Bacon,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation, 
Yale  University.  \_No'w  ready. 

Professor  Bacon's  works  in  the  field  of  Old  Testament  criticism  include  "  The 
Triple  Tradition  of  Exodus,"  and  "  The  Genesis  of  Genesis,"  a  study  of  the 
documentary  sources  of  the  books  of  Moses.  In  the  field  of  New  Testament 
study  he  has  published  a  number  of  brilliant  papers,  the  most  recent  of  which  is 
"The  Autobiography  of  Jesus,"  in  the  American  Journal  of  Theology. 

The  History  of  New  Testament  Times  in  Palestine 

Prof.  Shailer  Mathews,  Professor  of  New  Testament  History  and 
Interpretation,  The  University  of  Chicago.  \_No%v  ready. 

The  Conzregationalist  says  of  Prof.  Shailer  Mathews's  recent  work,  "  The  SociaJ 
Teacning  of  Jesus"  :  "  Re-reading  deepens  the  impression  that  the  author  is 
scholarly,  devout,  awake  to  all  modern  thought,  and  yet  conservative  and  pre- 
eminently sane.  If,  after  reading  the  chapters  dealing  with  Jesus'  attitude 
toward  man,  society,  the  family,  the  state,  and  wealth,  the  reader  will  not  af^rce 
with  us  in  this  opinion,  we  greatly  err  as  prophets." 


The  Life  of  Paul 

Prof.  Rush  Rhees,  President  of  the  University  of  Rochester. 

Professor  Rhees  is  well  known  from  his  series  of  "  Inductive  Lessons  "  contributed 
to  the  Sunday  School  Times.  His  "  Outline  of  the  Life  of  Paul,"  prirately 
printed,  has  had  a  flattering  reception  from  New  Testament  scholars. 

The  History  of  the  Apostolic  Age 

Dr.  C.  W.  VoTAW,  Instructor  in  New  Testament  Literature,  The 
University  of  Chicago. 

Of  Dr.  Votaw's  "  Inductive  Study  of  the  Founding  of  the  Christian  Church,"  Modem 
Church,  Edinburgh,  says:  "  No  fuller  analysis  of  the  later  books  of  the  New 
Testament  could  be  desired,  and  no  better  programme  could  be  offered  for  their 
study,  than  that  afforded  in  the  scheme  of  fifty  lessons  on  the  Founding  ojf  the 
Christian  Church,  by  Clyde  W.  Votaw.  It  is  well  adapted  alike  for  practical 
and  more  scholarly  students  of  the  Bible." 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus 

Prof.  George  B.  Stevens,  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  Yale 
University.  ^Now  ready. 

Professor  Stevens's  volumes  upon  "  The  Johannine  Theology,"  "  The  Pauline  The- 
ology," as  well  as  his  recent  volume  on  "  The  Theology  of  the  New  Testament^" 
have  made  him  probably  the  most  prominent  writer  on  biblical  theology  lo 
America.     His  new  volume  will  be  among  the  most  important  of  his  works. 

The  Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament 

Prof.  E.  P.  Gould,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation.  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia.    \Now  ready. 

Professor  Gould's  Commentaries  on  the  Gospel  of  Mark  (in  the  International  Criti- 
cal Commentary)  and  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  (in  the  American  Com- 
■  al  attempts  to  supply  those 
same  general  aim  and  scope. 


mentaryi)  are  critical  and  exceetical  attempts  to  supply  those  elements  which 
arc  lacking  in  existing  works  of  the 


The  History  of  Christian  Literature  until  Eusebius 

Prof.  J.  W.  Platner,  Professor  of  Early  Church  History,  Harvard 

University. 
Professor  Platner's  work  will  not  only  treat  the  writings  of  the  eariy  Christiaa 
writers,  but  will  also  treat  of  the  history  of  the  New  Testament  Canon. 

OTHERS  TO   FOLLOW 

**  An  excellent  series  of  scholarly,  yet  concise  and  inexpensive  New  Testament  hand- 

books."  —  Christian  Advocate,  New  York. 
*'  These  books  are  remarkably  well  suited  in  language,  style,  and  price,  to  ak 

students  of  the  New  Testament."  —  The  Congregationalist,  Boston. 


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